Harry Potter and the Prophecy of Lost Dreams
by zahwiccan
Summary: Harry is about to start sixth year, but he is being troubled by disturbing dreams which he is keeping secret. When he gets to school he meets the new DADA teacher, everyone else thinks he's great, but there's something about him Harry doesn't trust. R&R!
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1 Attacked

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, they belong to J.K Rowling.

Harry Potter sighed for what felt like the millionth time that day. He looked at his watch, which read 12:32. Exactly 2 minutes since he last looked.  
It was only the start of the second week of the summer hols, and already he was so bored. Not that he ever enjoyed the time he had to spend with the Dursleys, his only living relatives. They had despised him since he had been born, and the feeling was completely mutual. As the summer before, his friends' letters had been brief. But this time he at least understood why. He also, for the first time in his life, understood exactly why he had to return to the Dursleys every summer. But that hadn't made it any easier, and he couldn't wait until the start of his next year at Howarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. He felt a painful twinge around his heart as he remembered the events of last year:

Sirius falling through the veil… himself screaming… lupin holding him back… voldemort pointing his wand at him… dumbledore's grave face... trelawney's voice… "the one with the power to vanquish the dark lord will be born as the Seventh month dies…"

He physically shuddered and forced himself to stop that train of thought. The memories of the prophecy, and especially his Godfather, were still far too painful for him to examine.  
He had to think of something to do, just to stop himself going crazy from the terrible memories, and the sheer boredom he would be facing until Dumbledore thought it was safe for him to leave Privet Drive. He knew his 2 best friends Ron and Hermione were already at 12 Grimmauld place, the headquarters for the order of the phoenix, and although returning there would also bring back painful memories of Sirius, he would give anything to be there with them.  
He jumped as he heard his uncle's curt voice calling him from downstairs:  
"Potter!"  
Obviously lunch was ready. Well, he supposed gloomily, it was something to do, even if it meant seeing his cousin, Dudley. Harry sighed yet again, and left his room, then slowly walked downstairs and into the kitchen.Later that day, at about 11:00pm, Harry was still awake. He always had gone to sleep later than the Dursleys, but it had been even worse recently: he had been suffering from strange dreams which had left him less than eager to fall asleep. They had involved him walking, alone, through a dark wood, and in the dreams he was always sure that someone-or something- was following him. All the way through he, for some reason, had felt more terrified than ever before in him life. And he had seen some pretty terrifying things. Then he always woke up, the terrified feeling still with him, and his scar slightly twinging painfully.  
He was writing to tonks, lupin and Moody, telling them the he was being treated (slightly) better than normal, and there was nothing (much) to worry about. He then replied to Ron and hermione, assuring them, not entirely truthfully, that he was fine. All his letters were short and fairly brief, as he did not want to write to anyone about how he was really feeling, at least not yet. Anyway, that would take a long time to do. But he knew that because of this, they would all just worry about him more, so he tried to keep them fairly up-beat. However at the end of the one to the order, he had to add a postscript:

P.S. WHEN THE HELL CAN I GET OUT OF HERE!

Or, you know, words to that effect.  
When he had finished, he finally realised how tired he was, and resigned himself to another terrifying night. Little did he know just how terrifying._  
running, half stumbling through the darkness… feeling the eyes watching him, though not knowing who they were, or what they wanted…a feeling of unexplained but absolute terror taking over his mind… his body trembling all over… all he knew was that someone was after him… someone who wanted nothing but his death… he couldn't take this much longer… the fear pounding through him, in his very blood… too intense for him to bear…_

He woke up, nearly crying out. It took him a while to realize where he was, and that he was safe. His hair was stuck to him, his face covered in sweat, and yet his body was freezing, he was shivering all over. The feeling of terror still with him, still so overpowering, like nothing he had ever felt before that it took him a while to notice him scar burning painfully on his forehead, worse than it had in weeks. He took a deep breath to calm himself, mentally pulling himself together. It was just a dream, he told himself. But was it just a dream? Usually when he had recurring dreams, they meant something. Should he tell someone? But who? The weasleys would just worry about him, more than he wanted, and there was nothing hermione could really do. Dumbledore and the order were probably too busy to be worrying about the stupid dreams of a 15 year old teenager. Again he missed Sirius so badly his heart ached. Another wave of grief hit him, and he couldn't believe that he was really dead. He would have been able to tell Sirius, he would have cared, and he would have been able to help him. But it was all his fault that Sirius was dead, (or so he believed), completely his fault, and nothing could bring him back. Furious he blinked back the tears that threatened yet again No, he wouldn't tell anyone is dreams. But he couldn't shake of this uneasy feeling. He got out of bed, and looked at his watch. 2:00 am, and retrieved his wand from on his desk, and put it on his bedside table. It comforted him slightly; at least he would be able to defend him self. From what exactly, he wasn't sure. Maybe he was just being paranoid. Getting back into bed, he found that he probably wouldn't be able to go to sleep again at all that night.  
That was when he noticed what looked like a strangely shaped shadow on the floor. But the shadow was drifting toward him, up his bed and onto his terrified body. That was when he felt it; he could no longer breathe properly, it was suffocating him! He felt himself panicking, whilst desperately gasping for air. Calm down, he told his barely functioning mind. He concentrated, and remembered reading something about this in 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.' This is a Lethifold, he realized, the only way to defeat it is the Patronus. Summoning what felt like his last ounce of strength, he thought of one of the few happy thoughts he had, his best friends, and conjured a stag Patronus. At once he felt himself able to breathe again, and saw the Lethifold retreat out of his open window into the night.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Mrs. Figg

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, they belong to J.K Rowling.

**_A/N Ok, sorry I think this chapter is a little boring, but it's necessary. I promise that this story will get more interesting, please just bare with me!_**

_That was when he felt it; he could no longer breathe properly, it was suffocating him! He felt himself panicking, whilst desperately gasping for air. Calm down, he told his barely functioning mind. He concentrated, and remembered reading something about this in 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.' This is a Lethifold, he realized, the only way to defeat it is the Patronus. Summoning what felt like his last ounce of strength, he thought of one of the few happy thoughts he had, his best friends, and conjured a stag Patronus. At once he felt himself able to breathe again, and saw the Lethifold retreat out of his open window into the night…_

Harry sat in a state of shock, gasping for breath as though he had been winded. He could not believe what had just happened. Part of him was convinced it had to have been part of his nightmare, but no; his terror and the danger he was in had been very real.

He couldn't understand it; what could a Lethifold have been doing there, in Privet drive? They weren't even native to this country, he remembered reading about a man from Britain who had had an encounter with one, but he had been on holiday at the time. If he, Harry, and been killed by one that night, no one would have known what had happened to him. To them it would have seemed like he just literally disappeared of the face of the earth. The thought made him shiver even more.

It had to have been Voldemort. How else could have he had been attacked by one? He felt a hot surge of anger flow through him, partly taking over his fear; So much for Dumbledore's protective wards. Wasn't he supposed to be _safe_ here? Last year it was dementers, and this year Lethifolds. Where were the people who were supposed to be protecting him?

That's when he remembered about last summer when he'd used the same spell in self defence against the dementers. He would be receiving a letter from the ministry at any moment. Would he be expelled? Would they believe that he had been attacked by a Lethifold? He doubted it, but then again at least now they knew about the return of voldemort. Maybe this time they would be more open minded. He hoped.

What if he had to attend another hearing? The panic was again taking over him, as he sat up and climbed out of bed. Crossing to his window, he looked outside into the darkness, for the owl that would be soon arriving from the ministry. If only he could somehow contact a member of the order, maybe they could help explain what was going on, how this had happened in the first place. He couldn't even send a letter to Grimmauld place, the headquarters of the order, because his owl, Hedwig, was currently out hunting.

That's when he saw the owl approaching in this distance, and he opened his window so he could let it in hopefully without waking the Dursleys.

The tawny owl swooped into his bedroom and landed gracefully on the bed. With great trepidation he crossed over to it and relieved it of its post, and opened the official looking letter:

_Dear Mr. Potter_

_We have received intelligence that a Patronus charm was performed at your place of residence at 2:32 AM on 21 July. As you know this is a breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, and because of your previous violations of this Decree, this would normally result in at least your expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, the minister of magic himself informed us at the beginning of the school holidays that any defensive magic used at your place of residence should be properly investigated before any serious action is taken. Therefore Ministry Representatives will be arriving to speak with you at 10:00 AM later this morning. Please make sure that you are available to meet with them at this time._

_Hoping you are well_

_Yours sincerely _

_Mafalda Hopkirk_

_Improper Use of Magic Office_

_Ministry Of Magic_

Well, he thought, that's was unexpected to say the least. He supposed that Dumbledore had had a lot to do with what Fudge had told them at the improper use of magic office. Ever since the minister was proved wrong to the entire country by himself and Dumbledore, he apparently must have become much more cooperative.

He was very relieved, but his fears had not by any means been put completely to rest. Would the 'Ministry Representatives' really believe the truth? He hoped that someone from the order would be able to help him sort this mess out, it was after all not his fault he had been forced to fight for his life yet again. His best friend's, Ron Weasley's, father worked both for the ministry and the order, and would therefore hopefully get word to them.

In the meantime, what was he supposed to do now? There was no way he would feel safe going back to sleep, there's no way he would feel safe enough. It was bad enough before when he'd had dreams involving his godfather, and the terrifying recurring dreams he'd been having, but now he would probably have to cope with dreams of suffocating. Would he ever get any rest again?

No, instead now, all he could do was wait until it was late enough to show his face this morning without waking everyone in the house up. That's when it hit him; it wasn't true that he had no way to contact the order. Last summer he had found out that an old neighbour of his, Mrs. Figg knew the order. She wasn't a witch, but she was a squib and must be in contact with Dumbledore. Maybe she had some floo powder or something that he could use to contact someone who could explain to him what was going on.

But he couldn't exactly just sneak out of the house, and wake her up at 3 o'clock in the morning. He didn't appear to be in any immediate danger, (anymore) after all. He would have to wait a few hours, and go and see her, hopefully he would get back in time for 10, when the people from the ministry would be arriving.

With that thought, despite his situation, he almost laughed out loud for the first time weeks. Imagine the Dursley's faces when official members of the Ministry of _Magic _showed up on their doorstop at 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning!

Then he sighed. He was going to have a very long day.

Finally, after 4 hours of trying to distract himself in any way possible, (he even read his potions book for a while) in was 7AM, still very early for him, especially on a Sunday, but Mrs. Figg was most likely up, and the dursleys couldn't really get angry at him for leaving the house at that time. Not that he really cared what they thought anymore.

He left the house as quietly as possible, and, casting cautious glances around him as he was still very shaken from the events of the night before; first the dream, then the attack followed by hours of desperately trying to pass the time, he made his way to his neighbours house. He sincerely hoped that when he got there he would be able to speak to an order member, who had better give him a decent explanation to how he had been attacked by a Lethifold, in one of the few places he was supposed to be safe. He was tired of being left in the dark, and was more than ready for people to stop treating him like a child. He was the one who was constantly being targeted, and he was the one who would eventually decide the outcome of this war, even though he still found this idea very hard to take in, and as a result Dumbledore was going to have to start being more open with him.

He walked up the familiar driveway of Mrs. Figg's house. This place filled him with very bitter memories; he hadn't been here for almost 5 years, but it had been where the Dursley's always used to send him when they were taking Dudley out somewhere. He had had to cope in the cabbage smelling house with his old neighbour, looking at cat pictures and eating 10-year-old cake, while his cousin, Dudley was at theme parks, or zoos eating expensive ice creams. He couldn't wait until he could leave little whinging for ever, he'd never have to cope with the annoying neighbours and resentful 'family' ever again.

He knocked loudly on the door several times, before it was opened by the batty cat-obsessed Arabella Figg.

"Harry! I thought I might be seeing you sometime soon. Come in, come in," she said, ushering him into her kitchen.

Harry was relieved to hear that she had been expecting him; it meant that she must have been contacted by someone from the order.

"Arthur spoke to me early this morning," she told him, "he told me to tell you if you came to see me, that he will be one of the people coming to see you later today." That filled Harry with even more relief, if he had an order member coming, then maybe they would find a way to convince the ministry of the truth.

"What happened this morning? Why did you need a Patronus? There wasn't any dementers around was there? What were you doing outside at that time anyway?" She fired the questions at him in one breath.

"I wasn't outside, I was in my room. I needed to use the Patronus, but no, there weren't any dementers."

"What was it then?" she asked, clearly confused.

Harry hesitated before answering, she wasn't a witch, but as a squib she must have been born into a wizard family, so she would know some things about magical creatures, and she wasn't going to believe him easily. Then again, he reasoned, if he couldn't tell her, how was he going to tell the other people from the ministry in a few hours?

"I'll tell you, but you should know this is going to sound a little crazy," he warned her, and took a deep breath, "it was a Lethifold."

Her eyes widened, and she looked at him, a little disbelievingly. "Are you sure? How could there have been a Lethifold in Privet Drive? That's ridiculous."

"I know. It sounds completely crazy. But is it that hard to believe? There were dementers here last year, after all, and here is a long way from Azkaban. If they could get here, isn't it possible that someone might have somehow sent a Lethifold? If someone wanted to harm me all they would have to do is know the general area I lived in. You know Lethifolds prefer to feed on wizards, and it would have been able to find me easily. I have to be the only wizard around for miles, right?"

She now looked thoughtful, though still very sceptical. Harry sighed in frustration.

"Look, is there any way I can speak to someone from the order? Maybe they can help figure it out?" To his dismay, she shook her head, and answered,

"No, Arthur told me to tell you just to wait until he got here with the other ministry members. You shouldn't even really be out now; you should be at your Aunt and Uncle's house where it's safe. I'm sure Arthur will help sort this out. There has to be a good explanation for all this. I know you wouldn't just make all this up, but a Lethifold? There must be some kind of mistake."

Harry felt his anger start to build inside him, why did everyone have such trouble believing him? Why did they all think he was either after attention, or completely crazy?

"What else could it have been? It attacked me in the middle of night; I could feel it suffocating me! I didn't imagine that. I only just managed to get rid of it. Why else would I need to use a Patronus Charm in the middle of the night!"

She frowned at him, "I'm not saying you made it up! I just think there must be some other explanation for this," she snapped. Harry sighed in reply. This was getting him nowhere. And he had actually thought having someone at least related to his world nearby would have helped him somehow. Now he would just have to wait for the ministry members and Mr. Weasley to get there. Then of course, only Ron's dad would believe him at best. The others would think he was insane, or making up wild cover stories, as Fudge had probably convinced them last year.

"Alright. I guess I'll see you around sometime," he said to her as he left the house, adding silently to himself, '_thanks for nothing.' _He couldn't believe this; the order had told her to tell him not to contact them. They wanted him to wait for the ministry to arrive.

Dumbledore couldn't possibly ignore this attack, could he? Could he really be planning on leaving in this place all summer? He probably would have done last year, if it hadn't been for the hearing he had had to attend. At the end of last year, Dumbledore had admitted to making many mistakes concerning him, but he hadn't seemed to change his ways very much.

Then again, he didn't actually know what had happened yet, and obviously Mr. Weasley would be telling him, so maybe he was being a bit unfair. He was just so frustrated, after all that had happened to him last year, to be back in this place with the family that treated him like filth for so long.

When he arrived back into the house, (he had never thought of Number 4 to be 'home') he entered the kitchen to get something to eat. He hadn't really felt like eating much the past few weeks, but he had had barely anything yesterday, and after yet another sleepless night, he was definitely ready for something to eat. Of course going into the kitchen meant he would have to see the Dursley's, but he would have to see them today eventually anyway.

No one looked up as he entered. His cousin was still not up, he had stayed out late last night, at 'his friend's house for tea.' Yeah right. Beating up some more 10-year-olds on street corners more like. His Aunt and Uncle were in there, but since the warning the order gave them at the end of last term, they had reverted to their old tactic of pretending that he was invisible. This suited him fine, and he just sat down at the table and helped himself to some toast.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, they belong to J.K Rowling.

Chapter 3 Dream

Finally 10 o'clock arrived, and Harry, now feeling extremely nervous made his way down the stairs. He wanted to see his Aunt and Uncle's faces when they saw a group of wizards on their doorstep! He went into the kitchen, and looking out of the window, he noticed his Uncle's car was missing, but he could hear his aunt cleaning in this living room. Vernon didn't have to work much in the holidays, but sometimes he did have to go into work, and apparently he had today. Harry didn't know whether to be relieved that his Uncle was out, or disappointed. He supposed that this did make things easier.

He entered the living room, where his Aunt as usual completely ignored him, and only had to wait a minute, before he heard the knock on the door that announced the arrival of the Ministry members. He followed his Aunt, quietly so that she wouldn't notice him, to the front door. Maybe his should have warned his Aunt of their arrival. But where was the fun in that?

She opened the door, and he saw her instantaneously freeze on the spot, as she stared at the two people standing before her. They were dressed as muggles, though rather ineffectively, but she recognized them for what they were immediately. She had seen Arthur Weasley several times before meeting his children at the station. And as he had single-handedly demolished her living room 2 years ago, and joined in threatening her mere weeks ago, he was quite hard for her to forget.

Neither of the ministry members had noticed him yet. Arthur Weasley greeted his Aunt fairly cheerfully, Harry knew he didn't like his relatives very much, but Ron's dad had a strong fondness for all muggles. "How nice to meet you again. I hope you are well? We're here to see Harry, as I am sure he must have informed you." His aunt seemed to have lost the ability to speak, and merely gawped at them open-mouthed.

There was a small rather awkward silence, before the other member decided to speak up. He looked to be in his early forties as far as Harry good tell, he had slightly greying hair, a large black moustache, and somehow seemed to be familiar to him, but he couldn't place where he had seen him before.

"Mrs. Dursley, am I correct? We are from the Ministry of Magic, and we have come to talk with your nephew. May we come in?" He spoke much more formally than Mr. Weasley had, and offered his hand to Aunt Petunia. However she did not shake it, nor did she reply, she however did seem to have regained some of her senses, because at his mention of the word magic, she had looked nervously past him to the street, as if expecting to see the neighbours standing right outside the front door eavesdropping on her conversation.

Harry decided that maybe it was time to help rescue them, so he came forward, gently pushing his Aunt to the side slightly to let them pass. "Come in please," his said, and they crossed the threshold, both looking slightly relieved.

"Harry! Wonderful to see you again. This is Harold Stoughton form the improper use of magic office." Harold Stoughton nodded to him, and Harry shook his hand.

His aunt seemed to have finally regained the use of here voice. She had stopped gawping at the two older wizards, and now turned her beady eyes to her Nephew, she glared at him. "What are they doing here?" she asked angrily. Harry was saved answering by Stoughton, we said, "We are here to investigate your nephew's misuse of Magic. We would like to speak alone with him if that's at all possible?" his aunt looked terrified at the prospect of letting some strange wizards into her house and leaving them alone, but she was clearly still terrified of the threats of Mr. Weasley and the rest at the end of last term. So she nodded stiffly, glared at Harry one more time, and retreated into the kitchen.

The two men followed Harry into the living room, who silently offered them seats on the sofa. He sat perched tensely on the edge of the armchair opposite them, dreading the conversation he knew was coming.

There were a few moments of silence, in which the two wizards curiously surveyed their muggle surroundings, before Stoughton cleared his throat. "You have received several warnings about your use of underage magic, the latest of these being early this morning." Harry defended himself only silently, he didn't want to get into some kind of argument. None of those had been his fault. The first had been Dobby the house-elf, the one last year had been to defend himself from the dementers, and the other had been when he had accidentally blown up his Aunt. Ok, so that last one was a little his fault, but the minister of magic himself had decided not to press charges against him, so this man should not be using those incidents against him.

"However we are aware of your, um… unusual situation and the ministry recognizes that the magic you used last year was for self defence. We trust there is a good reason for the magic you used early this morning?" both wizards regarded him steadily as he hesitated to answer. He met the eyes of Mr. Weasley who gave him an almost imperceptible nod. Harry took a deep breath, "I did have a good reason for using the charm." They looked at him expectantly, and Mr. Weasley looked a little worried, "what happened Harry?"

"This is going to sound a little insane… but I was attacked. By a Lethifold." The last word escaped him reluctantly, and he waited for their reaction with bated breath. Both men simply looked at him for a second while the absurdity of the statement sunk in.

"What? That's impossible. It's ridiculous! A Lethifold? Here?"

"Harry, why don't you tell us exactly what happened," said Arthur slowly.

Great, thought Harry, that Stoughton guy probably thinks I'm a liar, and Mr. Weasley seems to think I've gone insane. Fantastic. He sighed and told them the whole story, minus the dream that had woken him up beforehand. He had the feeling that there was something strange about the dreams he was having, he didn't know how he knew but they didn't seem completely natural to him. Still, thought, he was reluctant to share the dream, especially with that Stoughton man, who was giving him disbelieving looks. He seemed to be looking down on him. That's when Harry realised where he had seen him before. He didn't know how he could remember him this well, but he recognised him as a member of the Wizengamot. One who had voted against him last year, at his hearing in August.

"…and that's what happened" he finished. Mr. Weasley looked thoughtful, and then he looked Harry straight in the eye, and Harry could tell immediately that Arthur believed him. It was such a huge relief-not everyone thought he was crazy or a liar.

"Well, that seems rather unlikely to say the least," said Stoughton bluntly. He had a slightly scornful look on his face as he regarded Harry, who stared stonily back at him.

"I don't know; he did seem to describe the effects fairly accurately. Besides why else would he need a Patronus charm in the middle of the night? Harry, we need to report back to the Ministry."

"You will be receiving a letter shortly, regarding our decision." Stoughton rose to leave, without as much as a goodbye. Arthur paused before he left the room, and put a hand on Harry's shoulder, saying quietly, "don't worry about a thing Harry, we'll short this out. I'll write you soon with more news; we'll get to the bottom of this." Harry nodded slightly, he wanted to ask more questions, but knew that they couldn't talk freely here, with Stoughton and his Aunt in the house, so he realized that, as always, his questions would be left unanswered and he would remain in the dark.

After they had left, Harry had returned straight to his room to avoid his Aunt. A year ago, she probably would have locked him in the cupboard for this, but she was so scared of the order, that she hadn't even yelled at him. Harry was worried that the ministry wouldn't believe him, but was glad to know that the order would. Hopefully he shouldn't be getting expelled. Dumbledore probably had a lot of influence at the Ministry right now, after the events of the end of last year.

Two owls came for him in quick succession. One, clearly from the MOM, and the other he guessed would be from the order.

_Dear Mr. Potter_

_Further to our inquiry of your use of underage magic, the ministry has revised our decision, due to Clause seven of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, which states that magic may be used by underage wizards or witches in exceptional circumstances. Therefore, you have been cleared of all criminal charges, and are no longer suspended from school._

_Enjoy your holidays!_

_Yours sincerely _

_Mafalda Hopkirk_

_Improper Use of Magic Office_

_Ministry Of Magic_

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He was cleared! And this year, no hearing! He was a little surprised though, that they had cleared him so easily. He opened the other letter, hoping that the order could give him some explanation. He knew however that they could not write too much, in case the owl was intercepted, but they had to be able to tell him something, right?

_Harry-_

_I was shocked to hear the news from Arthur this morning that you had been attacked. We are very glad that you managed to defend yourself, and I am yet again very relieved I taught you the Patronus! You may have received the letter from the ministry clearing you, and you may be surprised at their change in attitude from last year. However as Fudge was proved wrong by you last year, you have become very popular again to the general public and Fudge does not want to be seen punishing you for anything. As it is, he will be struggling to stay in office. _

_We are all shocked at the way in which you were attacked, Molly is almost beside herself with worry, and we will be looking into to it. You haven't been at Privet Drive for very long this year, however Dumbledore feels that it is necessary to bring you here early this year, so please make sure that you are ready to leave for sometime in the next few days,_

_Yours sincerely,_

_Remus J Lupin_

Harry felt a mixture of emotions. He was glad that they had believed him, and that they were concerned for him, but he was annoyed that he had once again almost been expelled because he had been forced to defend himself in a place where they had all told him he was safe. He was happy to be leaving earlier than normal, but angry that they would be leaving him there for at least one more night. How was he supposed to feel safe enough to sleep in this house now? He wanted to leave privet drive, but knew that meant he would be going to Grimmauld place, Sirius's old house. Could he cope staying there, where there would be memories of Sirius all around him? He wasn't sure. Could he handle all the looks of pity he would get? All the people either tip toeing around him, or asking him about Sirius?

He felt so conflicted. Either way he would be miserable, but at least if he went he would feel a little safer, and he would be with his friends and people who cared about him.

After a day of trying to finish his homework from last year, as a way of keeping himself busy and avoiding the Dursleys, Harry felt wrung out and exhausted. He sat on his bed, his wand on his bedside table, so he knew he could reach it quickly if the necessity arose, trying to avoid the sleep he knew was coming. He was too scared to sleep, but after weeks of mostly sleepless nights, it was too hard and he felt himself reluctantly drifting off to the sleep that beckoned…

_He was back in this place, he had been here before, but he couldn't remember where it was or how to get out of here. He wanted to leave this place, but his terror gripped mind could not think clearly. All he knew was that he had to keep running; he just had to keep going because if he stopped they would find him. They would kill him. It was all that they wanted-his death. He didn't even know who they were, but he knew they were there. They would not stop until they killed him. All that mattered was that he escaped them, but he struggled to remember where he was going. He had the feeling that when he had set out, he had known his destination, but it escaped him now. If they would just stop for a few minutes, if the eyes he felt watching him constantly would relent, maybe he could focus. If they all just stopped he knew he would remember where he was going, and how to get out of here. But they would never give him a chance. _

_He had never felt this terrified in all his life, it was a complete and soul consuming terror that was overtaking him. There was no one around him, no one there except them. No one would save him this time. He had never felt so completely alone, so utterly helpless. He was going to die here tonight. He was going to die alone and no one would ever know what happened to him._

That was when he woke up, almost crying out, so out of breath it was as though he had actually been running as though his life depended on it. He looked around his room, still completely terrified. He had faced so much in his life, but the fear he felt in his dreams was greater than any he could ever remember. It was greater than he had ever imagined possible. He was expecting to see someone there, maybe one of them, whoever 'them' was. But he was alone. He tried to calm himself down, 'it was just a nightmare,' he reassured himself 'nothing dangerous.' He couldn't understand what the dreams meant. They were not ordinary, he knew that, but they were not at all like the ones he had last year. Maybe somehow Voldemort was sending them in the hopes of driving him insane. Well, if that was the plan, it was working very well, but he couldn't help but think there was more to them than just that.

He struggled to recall where he had been in his dream. He had recognised it while he was asleep, but the details were slipping away from him, and he couldn't remember the location. All he could remember was the darkness, and the eyes watching him as he ran, consumed with terror, trying to escape someone, or something, that wanted nothing more then to see him suffer, to see him die.

He groaned quietly to himself, glad he had not appeared to wake anyone else in the house. He had to get to the bottom of this. He felt like he was losing his mind. Maybe he would ask someone for help when he got to Grimmauld place. He once again missed Sirius with a physical ache. If he was still alive, Harry would not have hesitated to ask him for help or advice. Then he thought he had no right to wish for that, because if it wasn't for him Sirius would still be alive. As soon as he thought that, he lay back down, with tears beginning to fall down his face. Sirius was dead, he would never see him again, and it was completely his fault. Laying there in the darkness, praying for a dreamless sleep that would not come to him, Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived, the hero of the modern magical world had never felt so alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Leaving Privet drive

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, they belong to J.K Rowling.

_**A/N i don't know how well it works, but a big part of this chapter is in Remus's POV. I just thought it would make a bit of a change, but I don't think it will happen much later on in the story. After all Harry is the main character, and J K Rowling does almost always write the scenes from Harry's POV, (I can only think of one scene in the books that does not have his view on things.) Anyway, enough of my babbling on, I just wanted to know how people felt about different POVs. Does it make it more interesting? Should I include more later on in the story? Or does no one really care? Tell me what you think, anyway here is chapter 4.**_

Remus Lupin could not believe what he had heard. Early yesterday morning, Arthur had come into the headquarters with the news that Harry had used underage magic again. When Arthur told them he had used the Patronus, of course they had all assumed that it had been dementers again, like it had been last year. But they had been informed a few hours later that it had been a Lethifold. Hardly anyone had ever even seen one of them before, they were extremely rare especially in this part of the world. He didn't doubt for a second that Harry was telling the truth, but still it was rather hard to take in. Of course they all knew that it wasn't just there by chance, the Lethifold had been sent by someone. But how they had managed to control a Lethifold was beyond him. He sighed to himself, would that boy ever get any peace? He seemed to be the most unfortunate person he had met in his life, and that was saying something.

Remus had lived a life full of people judging him before they really knew him because of who and what he was. He was a werewolf, and therefore the number of true friends he had who trusted him completely was very small. Things had been really bad for him before he had come to Hogwarts, he'd never really had a great deal of contact with people his own age. His parents had tried to shield him from the prejudice they knew he would have to face as much as they could for as long as possible. But that had all changed when he came to the school, and met 3 people who had changed his life.

James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. They had been amazingly good friends, better than he had ever thought would be possible for him. Of course that was before he learned of Pettigrew's betrayal. All those years he had believed Sirius had been the traitor, when all along it had been Wormtail, who was still alive. It filled the normally clam and controlled wizard with fury when he thought of the fact that Peter was still alive out there when he had been directly responsible for the deaths of James and Lily; two of the greatest people Remus had ever met. If he ever had the chance, Remus would not hesitate in killing the man, who he had once considered to be his friend.

These thoughts inevitably led towards James and Sirius. The death of Padfoot was still so new, the pain so raw, it was almost too much for him to face. He had believed him to have been a traitor, and he had been as good as dead to him. He had believed James and Peter to be dead, and that had left him as the last of the Marauders. But then, barely more than two years earlier he had found Sirius again, and it had made him happier than he had ever been in the previous 12 years. It seemed doubly cruel now to have lost Sirius again, so soon after he had found him again.

Every time something like this happened to Harry, a part Remus felt incredibly guilty. He knew Sirius had felt like this too; both of them felt they were letting James down some how. When Harry was born, they had all been so happy, and the Potter's had immediately decided to name Sirius Godfather; if anything was to happen to them, he was to take care of him. Sirius, who had never usually been one good at sharing his feelings, had confided to Remus last year how he felt like he was letting his best friend down; he had been unable to protect Harry all his life, and at the end of his 4th year he hadn't been there when he had needed him most.

Now, Remus felt similar to this. With all the other marauders gone, he was the one who was supposed to be looking after him. But, though it pained him to admit it, he didn't even know Harry all that well. True, they had spent a lot of time together in his 3rd year, but Remus hadn't even told Harry who he really was until he absolutely had to. He supposed that a part of him had felt guilty that he had not been there for Harry; the son of his best friends. When he had been born, Remus had assumed that he would become like an Uncle to him, and he was sorrier than anyone that it had not turned out like that. Remus had been worried that Harry would ask him why he had not taken him in when his parents died. The truth was, Remus had wanted more than anything to do just that, but Dumbledore had insisted he go to his Aunt and Uncle's house, and should have no contact with the wizarding world until he was ready. Remus had had no choice but to trust his judgement, and had therefore spent 12 years unable to even see Harry. He had been incredibly happy 3 years ago to finally be able to spend time with him, and had been very proud of him after mere minutes of knowing him.

He knew Harry would be suffering from the loss of Sirius just as much as he was, and he was glad that they had now come to take him away from his Aunt and Uncle's house, to take him to Grimmauld place where he could be with his friends.

He, along with Tonks, Moody, Kingsley and 7 others had come to pick him up from his Aunt and Uncles house. They would be travelling the same way as they had last years; broomsticks. It seemed the safest way, as Harry could not apparate yet, and they didn't want to travel by floo powder as they were not sure they could trust everyone at the ministry, which was still carefully watching the floo network. Tonks had sent another letter to the Dursleys to lure them out of the house. This made it so much easier for them, as they did not have to worry about talking to his family, or using magic in front of the muggles.

They had apparated directly into the living room, as they knew no one would be there to see them, except maybe Harry, but that wouldn't have mattered. In turned out, however, that he must have been upstairs as there was no one in the room when they arrived. They thought someone would have to go up to find him, but Tonks announced their arrival for them by accidentally knocking over a ornamental plate above the fireplace, which resulted in a large crash.

"Sorry," she whispered, blushing furiously, as she quickly muttered the repairing spell and replaced it. Of course by now Harry must have heard their arrival, and they all walked into the hall to see him walking cautiously down the stairs, wand raised. He relaxed visibly when he saw who it was.

"Harry, good to see you." Remus greeted him by shaking his hand, "how are you?" He looked intently into the face of the almost 16-year-old. Harry met his eyes, and Remus was shaken by the lack of emotion he saw staring back at him. His normally vibrant startling green eyes had a slightly, for lack of a better word, dead look in them. Remus was concerned but took it just to mean he was still in a state of denial about the death of his Godfather. He himself had felt a similar way when James and Lily had died; it had taken a while for the news of their deaths to sink in.

"Fine," he answered back finally, but it couldn't be clearer he was lying. He looked like he hadn't got much sleep recently, but it was to be expected. After what had happened, anyone would experience some kind of nightmares because of it, and the teenager already had plenty of other memories that would disturb his sleep. It had not escaped Remus's notice when he had taught Harry at Hogwarts how hard it had been for the boy to come with a good enough happy memory to use to conjure the Patronus.

The rest of the order greeted him quickly, and Harry then turned back to Remus. "Are we leaving soon?" How are we getting there?"

"Yes, we're going as soon as we receive the signal, the same way as last year; broomsticks. Do you have your things ready?"

"They're upstairs, hang on let me go get them." Tonks once again bounded forward, and offered to go with him to help, and Harry smiled slightly at her, and the two of them left the room. Remus supposed Harry had probably not told his family he was leaving soon, so he decided it would be lest to leave them a letter like he had done last year, just to assure them that their nephew was safe. Of course, from what Ron and Hermione had told them about Harry's relatives, they may not be all that concerned, but still he was sure that a part of them must care at least a small amount for the boy. At least that's what he tried to tell himself.

Harry's POV

Harry was walking to his room, with an energetic Tonks bounding along behind him, glad he would be seeing the back of this place for another year, despite their destination.

"Just as clean as last year, of course," Tonks was saying brightly, "I still find it a bit unnatural."

"I know what you mean. Sorry about the mess in here though," he said as they entered his bedroom, "didn't really feel up to doing much cleaning. I hate staying here anyway."

"Surely it's not that bad." Harry could not summon the energy to correct her, and was saved replying to her anyway, as she picked up his trunk, and shrunk it along with Hedwig's cage. "Got your broomstick? Oh yes there it is. I still can't believe you have a firebolt! I got a new broom last year; a Nimbus 2000!"

Harry smiled inwardly to himself, remembering his first broomstick, which had also been a Nimbus. Professor McGonagall had given it to him after accidentally finding out Harry had a unusual talent for flying, while he was sticking up for Neville. He had been very fond of that broomstick, until it had been destroyed by the whomping willow in his third year. Now, however he had his firebolt and he treasured it much more than he ever had his Nimbus. Not because it was an international standard broom, but because it had been one of his few gifts from Sirius.

He was very grateful Tonks stopped that train of thought, by saying, "come on then, they'll be waiting for us downstairs. We'll be receiving the signal at any minute.

5 minutes later Harry was with the others on the front lawn getting ready to take off. Moody had once again disillusioned him. "Alright, Potter the same thing as last year, no matter what happens to us, you keep going. The rear guard is standing by to take over in case we all get taken out." Part of Harry thought Moody was being his usual paranoid self, but the other part of him was glad he was taking this so seriously and was terrified at the thought of anyone else dying because of him.

They took of, as they received the second signal, and Harry felt the familiar sensation of his worries being left behind him as he rose into the air. The dark thoughts and worries he had of Sirius and the prophecy had by no means left him, but he felt as though they had lessoned slightly. He remembered in his fourth year when he had faced the dragon in the first task. He had spent weeks of being terrified of what would happen in that task, especially when Hagrid had shown him what he would be facing, but when he had taken flight he had found that he had left his fears behind him on the ground. From the first moment he had tried it, flying had felt easy. He had never had to be shown how to do it, and as soon as he had first taken flight that day in his first year, he had found it to be one of the most wonderful things in the world.

As they travelled, Moody was taking them round in circles, and everyone else was getting impatient, except Harry. This year he didn't even really feel the cold, he just wanted to stay up there forever, away from the world that involved the prophecy, away from the guilt he felt about Sirius. He sincerely hoped that the ban of last year would be lifted; he couldn't wait to be back on the pitch. He suddenly realised how many new members they would need this year. They couldn't keep using the useless beaters they had last year, and Alicia, Angelina, Fred and George had all left last year. That just left Katie, a seventh year, himself, Ron, and possibly Ron's sister Ginny.

All too soon, in his opinion, they landed outside number eleven Grimmauld place, and unfortunately Harry was brought back to earth. They walked closer to the buildings, and this year Harry knew what to do. He imagined the note that Dumbledore had written last year, 'The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix can by found at number 12 Grimmauld place, London.' Number 12 then seemed to suddenly appear; pushing aside numbers 11 and 13, and Moody, Remus, Tonks and the others followed him as he reluctantly walked up the steps, and opened the front doors.

Even though he had been expecting it, the memories of Sirius that hit him made him feel completely unprepared for the resultant onslaught of emotions that surged through him. He stood there silently, taking in his surroundings, trying to keep his emotions in check, and his face neutral, and he felt an intense gaze locked on him.

He turned to find Remus staring at him, and as their gazes met, Harry for the first time noticed the pain, that should have been so easy for him to notice, in the man's eyes. Harry suddenly felt guilty again; he had been so preoccupied with his own grief that he had not realized Remus would be just as upset, if not more so than he was being back here. It must have been just as hard for him to return here, as it was for Harry.

As they looked at each other, Harry realised that this wizard was the closest connection to his parents that he had left, and he slightly smiled at him. His first real smile in weeks; only very small, but it was there. Remus returned it, and put his hand on Harry's shoulder briefly, comforting him, before they both walked further into the house. Harry sighed to himself; it was going to be a long summer.

_**A/N there's chapter 4! I'm not sure I'm all that happy with it, especially the ending. If anyone has anyone ideas on how I could improve it, they're all very welcome! Please leave a review, tell me what you think!**_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Grimmauld place

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, they belong to J.K Rowling.

_Remus returned it, and put his hand on Harry's shoulder briefly, comforting him, before they both walked further into the house. Harry sighed to himself; it was going to be a long summer._

Harry was now standing near the bottom of the stairs, and noticed the portrait of Sirius's mother was unfortunately still there. He had hoped they could have gotten rid of it by now, but on the plus side she was sleeping at the moment. He hoped Tonks wouldn't knock something over like she did all the time last year that would wake her up. Seeing her portrait just reminded Harry how much Sirius had hated this place. He hated the fact that his godfather had been forced spent the last year of his life in this house.

Seconds later, Mrs Weasley came hurrying towards him beaming at them all in welcome, and he found himself being pulled into another of her rib-cracking hugs, before she pulled away to examine him intently. "How are you, Harry dear? It was horrible what happened to you, I don't know how that happened, we were all horrified." She now looked at him critically, "hmmm, yes you'll need to be feed up a bit of course." Harry noticed that she too was looking a lot thinner than she had the last time they had seen each other, just like she had done last year. The war was taking its toll on everyone, and Molly Weasley, born worrier and mother of seven, had even more than most to be concerned about. Harry had realized just how much this was true on the last night of summer last year. He had found her in the drawing room, facing a boggart who was showing her the dead bodies of all the Weasley children, Mr. Weasley, and himself. He hoped that none of those visions would come true, but she herself said there was almost no chance that the whole of her family would survive the war. Less than a year ago Arthur Weasley had nearly been killed, but the vision Harry had had had saved him. (A/N sorry about the 3 hads, but I think it made sense, right?)

She now turned to the others, "the meetings starting in a few minutes, you should all go down." They all turned, and descended the stairs to the kitchen where the order meetings were held, talking quietly to each other. Harry knew better than to try and follow them. No matter what he had been through, they still thought he was too young to be in the meetings, which seemed stupid to him now he knew what the prophecy contained. Mrs Weasley turned back to him, "You should go up and find Ron and Hermione, you're staying in the same room as last year. I'll call you down for dinner in a while, alright?" She then turned and followed the rest of them into the kitchen.

This left Harry standing alone at the bottom of the stairs, and he now had a proper look at the house he would be staying in for the next few weeks. It was slightly less dreary than it had been the last time he had been here, clearly the order had tried to make it a little more welcoming since last Christmas. But he didn't think the house could ever look cheerful, there was probably still plenty of cleaning him and the others would have to do during their stay here, though with any luck it wouldn't be as bad as last summer.

Picking up his luggage, which Tonks had abandoned in the hall in her hurry to get to the meeting, he started ascending the wide, sweeping staircase up to the second floor, and walked into his room from last year where he expected to find Ron and Hermione. He was right; as soon as he had walked through the doorway, he was pulled into another hug, this time by Hermione Granger, and his vision was obscured by a very large amount of bushy brown hair.

"HARRY. You're here! We didn't here you arrive! I'm so glad you've come earlier than normal; I thought we weren't going to see you for weeks! Not that I'm glad you were attacked of course. I couldn't believe it when I heard it was a Lethifold! According to 'A Guide to Dark Magical Creatures, and How to Defend Yourself,' they can only be found in countries much further south than here. And even there, they're so rare your chance of running into them is extremely small. When we heard we thought there would be another hearing for you to attend! I'm so glad you're not expelled though, but it's not too much of a surprise if you think about it. Have you read the daily prophet recently? It's full of stories saying how great you are, bit of a change from last year. Now Fudge will be terrified of doing anything against you. I wonder if…"

Showing unusual initiative, Ron decided to interrupt her there, and met Harry's eyes with a grin. They both knew if no one stopped her, she would go on for hours. "Slow down Hermione! Remember to breathe!"

Hermione scowled at him, but then she just laughed, turning back to Harry. "Sorry. It's just so could to see you again."

"It's good to see you too. But I thought you'd be with your parents Hermione?"

"Well I only got here last week, but I didn't want to be away for too long, I like to keep up with what's going on in the Wizard world. Did you have a good summer? Before the attack I mean. How are you?"

Harry noticed now that they were both looking closely at him, and he knew it was meant as more than just a polite question. He knew they were both thinking about Sirius, and wondering if he would talk about it. He hadn't felt up to it at the end of term last year, and he knew they would want him to open up a bit to them. But as well as not feeling ready to do that, Harry was also worried that if he started to really talk to them, the story of what happened in Dumbledore's office that night would come out too. He was still trying to process what the prophecy meant himself, he couldn't talk to anyone else yet. What would they say if they knew the truth? What was the point in worrying them with it now? There was nothing they could really do to help him, but he knew that he would have to tell them, and probably sooner than later. They were too close, and had been through too much together for him to keep something this huge from them, but he couldn't do it yet.

"I'm alright. I've been better though." Determined not to give them an opening to mention his godfather, he carried on quickly, "The Dursleys weren't quite as bad as normal. They were so scared of the order, so they've basically just left me alone. I hardly saw Dudley. It was pretty uneventful, until the other night. Has anyone said anything to you, do you know how it happened?" He had dropped his luggage on the floor, when Hermione had greeted him, and now he sank down on the bed next to Ron, while Hermione sat in a chair at the desk.

"We haven't heard much," Ron said, "but no one seems to know how it got there."

"Of course, we think it was Voldemort" Hermione said, ignoring Ron's flinch at the sound of that name, "but Lupin said that a Lethifold would be hard for even him to control, they're not really sure how he did it. I think they've got people looking into it though."

"That's exactly what I thought," he replied, "but then again, last year we were sure the dementers were sent by Voldemort, but it turned out to be someone from the ministry. What if it was someone like that again?"

Ron and Hermione pondered this for a while. "It could be, but the ministry is being much more cooperative now, and they don't seem to think you're a raving lunatic anymore."

"Well that is comforting," Harry mumbled sarcastically. After last year, he wasn't in any way fond of the Ministry anymore. He didn't trust any of them, except Ron's dad, Kingsley and Tonks of course. But he did recognise how having them working with the order was definitely a good thing.

"Yeah," Ron agreed, obviously he was aware what kind of thoughts that were going through Harry's head. "I'm glad they're on our side now, but most of the ministry are a load of bumbling idiots." Harry expected Hermione to say something about that to Ron, in their defence, but she merely nodded grimly. She, too, was obviously finding it hard to forget the kind of things they'd written about him last year. Harry realised how lucky he was to have friends like them- who would stick by him through anything. He knew they would not abandon him if they found out about the prophecy, despite any danger they would be in, but he still couldn't bring himself to repeat it, even to them.

"So," Harry said, again to stall any comments about Sirius, "how are the twins doing? Are they staying here?" The Weasley twins had left Hogwarts last year, and had now opened a joke shop in Diagon alley.

Ron grinned, "Yeah they're here. They've joined the order, mum wasn't happy about that, but they're not very important members yet, because they've only just finished school. They don't do anything really dangerous. Which is probably a good thing, because they're really busy with the joke shop they have. I've been there once. It's great; I hope we can go see it sometime later in the holidays. They have some really great stuff." Hermione frowned slightly in disapproval, as Ron started to describe several of their new products.

"Ron, I don't think they're going to let Harry visit Diagon Alley," she said in a patronising voice. She had a point though; Harry had been thinking the same thing. He hoped he would be able to visit Hogsmeade this year though, at least. They had only gone once last year, because Umbridge had banned the trips, and Harry had barely gone in his third year, he had had to sneak in. So he hadn't been able to go there as much as everyone else.

Then Hermione, after a moment of slightly awkward silence, spoke up softly. "So. How long are we not going to talk about what we're not talking about?" Ron gave her a warning look, before looking at Harry a little nervously. Neither of them had to ask her what she was talking about; they both knew immediately.

None of them had been looking forward to this conversation, and after his outbursts to them last year, Harry could not blame Ron for being nervous about it. But Harry did not feel angry at them like he had last year, and even if he had been he would have been unable to find the energy to shout. Instead he just sighed, and looked at the floor, to avoid meeting his friends' eyes, which he could tell were locked on him unwaveringly. He was uncomfortably reminded of his feeling in the dreams he had; the feeling of many people watching him from in the darkness, and him being unable to escape them despite how much he wanted to. This in turn reminded him that the dreams were yet another thing we was keeping from his friends; another thing he felt unable to tell him, but in this case he was not completely sure why he felt he could not share it with them.

After what felt like an eternity, he looked up to see in their eyes what he had been dreading to see: pity. He did not deserve or want them to pity him; it was his fault that Sirius was dead. Of course if he told them that, it would just make them feel even worse for him. Finally he said quietly, "I know you're just trying to help me, and I know you both cared about him too. But I can't… I just need some more time, okay? It feels like I just lost him, and I can't talk about it yet."

Ron was silent. Hermione now had tears in her eyes, but he could tell she was fighting them. Her voice, however, was quite steady; "Harry…"

He knew she was about to press the matter, it was not like Hermione to just let anything drop, and he was grateful that she was trying to help him, but he stood up, which cut off whatever she had been about to say.

"I'm sorry; Hermione, but I mean it. I don't want to talk about it." He left the room abruptly, and started making his way downstairs, planning to wait in the drawing room, or somewhere like that to wait for the meeting to be over. He sank down onto a sofa at the far end of the room, which luckily he found was empty. On the wall opposite him he saw the Black family tree, which apparently they had not been able to get rid of. He had been shocked last year to find out about Sirius's family, who had mostly been very dark wizards and witches. Sirius's brother had actually been a death eater, and though most of his family had been too scared to actually join Voldemort, they had supported his ways.

He knew that upstairs, Ron and Hermione would be talking about him. The idea annoyed him, but he supposed that he couldn't really blame them. He hoped that Ron would convince Hermione to let the matter go for the time being.

Not too long later, he heard the sound of the kitchen door opening, and voices in the hall, which announced to him the end of the order meeting. He was glad he would finally get dinner, but was not really looking forward to facing everyone; they had not really had the chance to talk on the way there, and now he worried that they would act the same as Ron and Hermione had.

He went out of the room, in time to see a familiar figure walking quickly out the front door. This was Severus Snape, Harry's potions teacher, and sworn enemy. Harry had always disliked this man, but after the way he had treated Sirius last year, his hatred had increased threefold. If Snape hadn't taunted Sirius so much, maybe he wouldn't have been as keen to leave at the end of last year. Harry was very glad that he wouldn't have to face him for a while. He wondered fleetingly whether he had managed to get into Snape's NEWT Potion class. Since he had to have achieved an O grade in the exam to do so, it seemed unlikely. On the other hand, without Snape bothering him, he hadn't found the exam too difficult, so maybe his practical exam had made up for the written. He would like nothing more than to never be in one of his classes again, but if he wanted to be an Auror, which he did, he would have to put up with them for another 2 years.

As soon as Snape disappeared from sight, Harry walked closer to the door, and then suddenly jumped out of the way, as it was violently opened. He then found himself face to face with his friend Hagrid, who also worked for the order, and for Hogwarts. He hadn't seen Hagrid since near the end of term last year. He had gone to see him, but hadn't stayed for long, as, like his friends, Hagrid had attempted to talk about Sirius. At the end of his fourth year Hagrid had made him feel a lot better about what had happened in the third task, but in his fifth year he had had the opposite effect on him. It wasn't really Hagrid's fault, Harry had been feeling very isolated, and at that time had not cared much for company. He supposed that feeling was to do with the prophecy.

Still, though, it was good to see him, and Hagrid grinned at him in greeting, his black, beetle eyes crinkling as he smiled. Harry noticed that the injuries he had gotten last year from his giant half-brother, Grawp, seemed to have got better; maybe Hagrid was right in that Grawp was getting better with people.

"Harry!" Hagrid pat him on the back as he greeted him, which nearly caused Harry's knees to buckle, "How's yer summer been? Those Muggles bin treatin' yeh alrigh' ?

"Not too bad." He replied. For what felt the hundredth time that day, Harry was being examined closely, this time by Hagrid.

"Lis'en," he began hesitantly, "I didn't mean ter upset yeh tha' day." This was getting too close to the topics Harry was trying to avoid, so he merely shrugged. "You didn't upset me." But Hagrid was not fooled for a second; he raised his bushy eyebrows at him. "Well, alright, maybe you did a little," he relented, "but, it's not your fault, and I am ok, really." Ignoring the pitying looks Hagrid was giving him, he carried on, "You're not staying for dinner then?"

"I wish I could Harry, but I've got to…well I'm busy y'know?" Harry nodded, order business, obviously. Hagrid had been known to let things slip occasionally, but Harry did not press him for details. He just replied, "Alright, well I should see you soon hopefully, right? Are you going to be there at the start of term this year?" He had been very late coming back to school last year due to a mission he had been on for the order.

"Yeh, I reckon so. Lis'en, Harry, you ever need someone ter talk to…" he left the offer unfinished, but Harry knew what he was saying. "Thanks Hagrid. I guess I'll see you soon then." He smiled briefly at him, and then walked past him through the door, and began making his way down the stairs, feeling Hagrid watching him.

20 minutes later, Harry was sat around the table, tucking in to some of Mrs. Weasley's excellent cooking. All the Weasley family, minus Percy and Charlie were there, along with Tonks; Moody and Remus. The rest of the order, it appeared, was busy. He was sat in between Fred and Ginny, and Ron and Hermione were opposite him. Everyone was talking loudly, and he realised just how glad he was to be with them all again. Despite his feelings of being in this house, he was with his real family, in the world where he belonged.

He talked to Ginny quite a lot, mainly about quidditch, which he enjoyed; up until last year, she had never really spoken to him as she had been so nervous around him. Now something Ron had said to him the summer before his second year came back to him; "you've no idea how weird it is for her to be this quiet, she never shuts up normally." He found that she agreed with him about the two replacement beaters they'd had last year; they were definitely going to have to be replaced if they wanted to win this year.

Fred and George told him at length all about their joke shop, and he heard more about the different items they were planning to develop, "You have to come and see the shop sometime. It's doing great, we've had to hire some people already to help out!" he noticed their mother was carefully ignoring this part of the conversation. She was not happy with their career choice, but had however accepted it a little more when she had seen how well it was doing.

When they had finished dinner, they all decided to hang around for a while longer. Ron and Hermione had not mentioned Sirius anymore since before dinner up in their room, and they were acting normally with him, although he did notice them shooting some searching glances at him every now and then.

Now Ron and Harry were sat listening to Hermione going on about the exams. They were dreading the arrival of their results, but looking at each other, they silently agreed that if it would make Hermione shut up about them, they hoped they would get here soon. They were drifting off, only half hearing what she was saying, but Remus who was sitting with them did appear to be paying attention. "Hermione, I'm sure you'll be fine. I taught you, not too long ago, remember? So I should know. You probably could have taken you OWLs in your third year if you had to!" he was consoling her.

"But I think I might have failed Ancient Runes! I made a really stupid mistake. I remembered as soon as I came out of the exam, though. But I can't help but be worried! If I did badly on these exams, it could seriously ruin my future career!"

This sort of talk was not very comforting to Harry and Ron. If she had failed, did either of them really stand much of a chance? No. Well, except Defence against the dark arts. Harry was pretty confidant that both he and Ron had passed that exam with flying colours, thanks to the DA, a club Harry had run the year before.

As she was preoccupied talking to Remus, they decided to slip away from her, and joined a rather lively debate going on about Quidditch between the twins, Ginny and Tonks.

Eventually Mrs. Weasley sent them all off to bed, claiming that she wanted them up early tomorrow to help clean the attic, which they had so far been avoiding. The twins left; they were going to stay the night at the leaky cauldron to allow them to get to their shop early, "Hogwarts students will start coming for school supplies any day now; we're going to be very busy for the next few weeks!"

Soon after that he and Ron were in their room, and Harry, exhausted for the events of the day was asleep within minutes, hoping that for once he could go the whole night without being disturbed by any kinds of dreams. But, of course, the world did not work that way for Harry Potter…

_Darkness was all around him, as he stumbled through the forest feeling the all too familiar eyes on him, feeling them not far behind him. They were gaining on him. Panic gripped his heart, and he picked up his pace, no matter what happened he could not allow them to catch up to him. If they ever did… well, let's just say Dumbledore was right; there are many things in this world much worse than death. _

_Suddenly, he could barely dare to believe he was really seeing it, there was light ahead of him. It was still quite far in the distance, but a part of him knew; it was the way out. He wasn't sure how he knew, but if he could just reach that light then he would get out of here, and they would not be able to follow._

_They saw it too; he felt their anger and increased desperation to catch him as though it was his own. They knew they had to get him before he got much further. Already running faster than he ever knew he could, he started to move faster, his lungs gasping desperately for air. It felt as though he had been running forever, and he wanted nothing more than to collapse on the ground and rest, but if he did they would be on him in mere seconds. He heard branches breaking behind him, and his he literally felt his heart constrict in fear. They must be even closer behind him than he thought. Despite his fear, as he kept running he shot a look over his shoulder. He could see no one, but knew that they were still there, still following. But he had the feeling that they were now falling behind slightly, and for the first time in as long as he could remember his heart filled with hope._

_But as he turned back to look the way he was running, he saw the outline of a figure in the darkness, only a couple of metres in front of him. Time literally seemed to stand still as Harry stopped running suddenly in surprise, gasping for air. This person. Was he one of them? Why else would he be here? But something in him knew that this wasn't one of them, it was someone different. He moved closer to him until they were only inches apart. The light marking his way out was now so close, but this man was blocking his way. He may not be one of them, but he was going to be the reason they caught up to him unless he let Harry pass. He could now see his face clearly, and the thing that struck him immediately was his eyes; they were unusually golden, he had never seen eyes like them before. The man looked at Harry coldly, before grinning evilly, filling Harry's heart with dread. This man knew they were after him, but would not let him pass. Harry wanted to scream at him to move out of his way, but his voice would not work, and he knew he could not pass the golden-eyed man, unless he wanted him to. It had been mere seconds since the man had first appeared, though it had seemed like much longer, and now he felt them right behind him. There was no escape. They had reached him. All the running, the desperately trying to get away; it had all been for nothing, they had reached him anyway, and now it was all over…_

Harry woke up suddenly, expecting to find himself in the dark forest, with them behind him; but no, he was in his bedroom, at Grimmauld place. He almost felt like crying in relief. He looked to his left, and saw Ron sleeping peacefully, undisturbed. He scanned his surroundings quickly expecting to see something out of place, but there was nothing unusual. He relaxed slightly, 'it was just a dream.' But was it just a dream? It hadn't seemed it at the time; his fear had been so very real. He had never been as scared of anyone, even Voldemort, as he was of them. But who were 'they'? He thought for the millionth time in frustration. He could never remember who they were exactly, but in the dreams it always seemed like he knew them.

This dream had been slightly different from the others. For a while it had seemed like he would escape, before his path had been blocked. Each time he had the dream, it seemed to become more and more and intense, and he could recall more details. This time he remembered it had been a forest, and in the last dream he had recognised his surroundings. Did that mean it was the forbidden forest? He hoped not, he hated that place; he had so many bad memories there.

The clearest thing he had seen in any of the dreams had been that man. Harry struggled to remember what he had looked like, but all he could remember was the eyes; the deep golden eyes. He didn't think he knew that man, but he remembered the evil he had felt practically rolling of him, even though in the dream he had recognised that the man was not one of 'them,' the ones who were chasing him.

Harry was still shaking from the dream. There was no way he could get back to sleep now, and he didn't want to wake Ron, so he decided to go downstairs, and maybe get something to drink. He untangled himself from the sheets, and quietly put on his dressing gown, and walked out of the door, leaving it slightly ajar, so as to not wake Ron by closing it. He made his way down the stairs, and headed towards the kitchen, looking at his watch as he did. 2:30 AM; he had been asleep for a grand total of 2 hours. He opened the kitchen door, expecting to find the room empty, but he saw Lupin sitting at the kitchen table staring into space drinking from a steaming mug.

He seemed to jolt out of his stupor as he heard Harry enter, and looked up in surprise.

"Harry, what are you doing up?" He then seemed to take a closer look at him, and his face become concerned. "Is something wrong? What's the matter?" Harry knew he must still look slightly shaken, which was why he had been hoping no one would be up. He tried to calm down, and make his face more neutral.

"Nothings wrong. I just couldn't sleep, that's all." Well, it was half the truth, which was probably a good job. Remus would have been able to tell if he lied outright. Lupin paused for a moment, looking at him. "Well, since you're up why don't you sit down for a while? I've been hoping to talk to you a bit actually. Do you want some tea or something? Hot Chocolate?"

"No thanks, I'll just get some water." He crossed to the sink, and filled a glass from the sink. He leaned against the counter, and tried to drink normally so Remus wouldn't be suspicious, but he felt like he had drunk nothing for days. Just like the other night, it had been as though he had really be running for his life in the darkness. He noticed Remus once again studying him intently. He was no fool, and he was very perceptive; he could tell something was very wrong. "Sit down, Harry." He said again, pointing at the chair next him. Reluctantly, as he thought he knew what was coming, Harry crossed to the table hoping Remus wouldn't notice him shaking: he was still suffering from the aftermath of the dream.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked again after a pause. This time Harry didn't answer, he simply nodded to the table, avoiding eye contact with him. The truth was Harry had never felt less alright in his life; last night for a couple of hours he had felt better, he was back where he belonged with his friends. But the dream had shaken him badly; he had felt as though he was really about to be killed, or worse. The combined pressure of his nightmares; his memories and guilt over Sirius, and thoughts of the prophecy was completely overwhelming him, and to his dismay he felt tears rising in his eyes, and he furiously blinked them back, praying the other man had not noticed.

Lupin leaned forward slightly, hoping to gain eye contact, "I lost him too, Harry. We both miss him. There's no shame in what you're feeling." These words were similar to the ones Dumbledore had spoken that night, and Harry found he had to fight the tears even harder. He had never cried in front of people easily, and he did not want to now. A part of him wanted to flee this conversation, but he couldn't. He knew Remus wouldn't let him leave that easily, but it wasn't just that. He did not want to talk about his feelings, but he felt that if he held them in for much longer he would explode. There were too many thoughts, too many worries, and worst of all too many secrets, and who better to share his feelings over Sirius with, than the last marauder, the only one who felt Sirius's death as hard as he did?

Reluctantly, he raised his eyes to meet Remus's, and saw his own pain reflected there. "It was all my fault," he finally said quietly, "but I was just trying to do the right thing. I never meant for that to happen…" he broke off, and Lupin shook his head. "Of course you didn't, you saw someone you cared about in danger, and you went to help. Anyone would have done what you did. No one blames you except yourself." Harry wanted to say that it wasn't true, but he had now put all his energy into trying not to let the tears fall, and Remus had sounded so sure in what he was saying, that he almost wanted to believe him.

"Sirius would have done anything for you. Nothing would have stopped him from going to help you that night; none of us even bothered trying to stop him. You were the son he never had; he said that himself; and he would have stopped at nothing to try and save you." The pain Harry felt in his chest was almost too much for him to bear. Sirius had said that about him? He had never known that.

"I'm sorry, Remus." It was all he could think of to say.

But Lupin shook his head, and he only repeated softly, "it wasn't your fault,"

How long they sat there, Harry didn't know. It had been hard talking about it even just a little bit, but it had helped him. Remus had obviously assumed that his feelings about Sirius had been all that was wrong with him, so Harry did not have to tell him about the dreams. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't want to tell him, even though he had just admitted to himself that talking to Remus had helped. Maybe he would later, but right now didn't feel like a good time.

"This house belongs to you now, you know," Remus said suddenly, surprising Harry. "He left everything to you, even this house. You're not allowed to own it officially yet of course, as you're still underage. I'm looking after it until then, but when you're 17, this house is yours." Harry wasn't sure how he felt about this, in a way he was touched he had been left everything, but he also felt like he didn't deserve it, and if he was honest, he didn't really want to be inside this house, never mind own it. "I don't want it," he said bluntly, "I don't want it, it should be yours." He had felt similar to this when Cedric had died, and Harry had been given the winnings for the tournament. But Cedric's parents had refused to take it when he offered, and he knew Remus was about to do the same thing.

"No, Harry, Sirius left it for you. Who knows, in a few years this place may actually be fit to live in." They would have to talk about this later; Harry was too tired to argue with him about this. He desperately needed some sleep; all these sleepless nights were definitely beginning to take a toll on him, but after tonight he found he was scared to go to sleep.

He decided that maybe it would be a good idea to mention something of the dreams to Remus, but he still didn't want to talk about them properly yet; maybe if he just told another half-truth…

"Remus," he began hesitantly, "I've been having some trouble sleeping lately. I keep having these dreams about, er… what happened that night. Is there anything I can do to help me sleep?"

Remus looked at him thoughtfully; "You should have mentioned something earlier. Are they really bad?" At Harry's nod, Remus sighed, "well, it's to be expected I suppose. They'll probably get better in time, but for the meantime, I guess you can have some dreamless sleep potion. The problem is you cant take it every night, you don't want to have to rely on it too much, I don't want you to become addicted to it or anything. But it should help a bit, until they stop, which they will if you give it time." Harry now felt guilty for lying about what the dreams were about, but he had done it now. The problem was, he didn't know what was causing these dreams, so he couldn't be sure that they would just stop after some time had passed. He convinced himself it didn't matter; if they carried on, or got a lot worse, they he would ask for help, but he didn't want to just yet.

"Wait here a minute, I'm sure we have some somewhere." He left the room, and returned just minutes later with a large glass container in his hand. "There's enough in here for about 6 nights, but please do not take it that many nights in a row. This should last you a while, ok? If they're still bothering you when you go back to school, I'll write a letter to Madam Pomfrey, she'll be able to give you some, but I'll warn you now, she won't give you a lot."

"It's alright, they're not every night anyway," this at least was true; they didn't happen every night, even though they had become more frequent in the last couple of weeks. "Thanks Remus… for everything, I mean. I'll talk to you in the morning." He left the room, feeling much better than when he had entered it, the container of dreamless sleep potion in his hand, relieved that he could at least guarantee he would sleep the rest of the night peacefully.

He was on the second floor, thinking longingly of sleep, when he realised that he was right outside Sirius's old room. That thought stopped him in his tracks; and he wasn't sure completely why but he moved towards it, and cautiously entered. He had expected to find the room emptied, cleaned out of all of Sirius's things, but instead to his surprise, as he turned on the light, he found it exactly like it must have been left by his Godfather that night. He supposed Remus hadn't felt ready to get rid of all his things yet, which come to think of it was not too much of a surprise. Harry walked further into the room, and quietly sat on the bed, missing Sirius more than ever. He sighed, and was about to stand up and leave, when two photographs on his bedside table caught his eye.

The first was a picture of Sirius, Remus, and Harry's father, James, looking as though they were about the same age Harry was now. It looked as though part of the picture had been cut away, and Harry guesses Sirius had cut the forth marauder, Wormtail, out of the picture. Harry smiled at how happy the three teenagers looked in the picture.

But it was the other that caught his eye; it was of him and Sirius, taken last Christmas. Harry had forgotten that picture had been taken; it was the only time he could think of that he and Sirius were photographed together, (since he was a baby of course.) They'd never really had many chances to take any, and Harry didn't have one. But Sirius had kept this picture here, next to his bed; and as Harry held it, for the first time he realised that what Remus and Dumbledore had told him was true: What had happened was horrible, but it wasn't really his fault. He smiled as he looked at the two faces, laughing together; he remembered the moment well, but at the same time the memory felt as though it was from another life.

"Goodbye, Sirius," he whispered quietly, but he did not replace the picture; instead he took it with him, and he turned out the light in the room, after one more quick look around him. As he walked back to his room, for the first time in weeks he felt strangely calm, and the deep sadness within him, though by no means gone, had definitely lessoned slightly.

He climbed into bed, and drank what he estimated to be a sixth of the potion. He barely had time to put the container on his bedside table, before he lay down and let the sleep take him.

_**A/N: Wow-long chapter. For me, that is! I think I might have gone on quite a bit in this chapter, but I did really enjoy writing it. Please review, I really want to know what you think!**_


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me, they belong to J.K Rowling.

Chapter 6

A week passed at Grimmauld place uneventfully; unless you counted the group of Doxies Harry and the others had found whilst cleaning out the attic, and the order members constantly coming and going. Luckily for Harry, though, he had not had to see Snape since the day he had arrived, and he had also not had to seeDumbledore. He knew he would have to face the headmaster eventually, most likely quite soon, but he was not looking forward to any conversation with the man and was glad any confrontation with him was being delayed.

Harry's dreams had been much less frequent over the past week. He had found that if he went to bed relaxed, he was much less likely to have any of the disturbing images, and the potion that Remus gave him had allowed him to catch up on some much needed rest. Of course he knew that he had not seen the end of the dreams, and he still was anxious to find out if they meant anything, especially the golden eyed man he had seen. The thing Harry was most concerned about was that it was possible the dreams were some kind of premonition. He had never really thought that he had a gift for Divination, but then again he had never really had a decent teacher in the subject, so how could he be sure he didn't have some kind of gift for it? A part of him knew he was being stupid not to mention his dreams to anyone, but he still couldn't bring himself to do it.

He was woken on the 31 July by Ron, who had thrown a pillow at him, "Come on, Harry wake up! Its 10 already, everyone's waiting to give you your presents," he was speaking very impatiently, and it took a barely awake Harry a few seconds to figure out what Ron was talking about. He looked at his friend blankly for a second, causing Ron to roll his eyes and sigh in frustration. Then it hit him, it was the last day of July, his birthday! How could he have forgotten that! He had never enjoyed his birthdays before, with the exception of his eleventh of course, that day had been one of the best in his life. But this year, for the first time he would be with his friends on his Birthday, and of course they were not going to ignore like the Dursleys had done.

He grinned a little sheepishly at his best friend, "Sorry, I forgot."

Ron laughed, a little disbelievingly, how could someone forget their own birthday? "Well come on then, now you're finally awake." Harry got out of bed and started to dress quickly as Ron left the room, muttering to himself.

A few minutes later, Harry entered the kitchen, and was immediately greeted buy hugs from both Hermione and Ginny, "happy 16th Harry!" On the Kitchen table there was a pile of gifts that could almost rival the amount Dudley got from his parents, and Harry looked at them in disbelief. The others noticed his expression and laughed at him,

"They're called presents, mate" Fred whispered to him loudly. Harry blushed slightly, but grinned in return.

He had received gifts from all the Weasley family except Percy, (Harry had been very cautious in opening the one from the twins, and for good reason,) as well as Hermione, and even Neville, Dean and Seamus, his fellow Griffindor sixth years, had sent him something, (he had the feeling Seamus was still trying to make up for his behaviour the previous year,) and to his surprise Luna Lovegood had also sent him something. He was not sure completely what to make of Luna, she was very strange and never seemed to be completely there; she was always off in her own world. He knew Ron and Hermione were not exactly crazy about her, and that she was also teased quite a lot, she didn't have that many friends. But last year, when they had needed help, she had come through for them, and had gone to the Department of Mysteries with them. She had been the only one who had been able to speak about Sirius to Harry at the end of last year without upsetting him more; she had actually been quite understanding of his feelings. He knew she was in Ravenclaw, the house generally associated with the brightest people at Hogwarts, (Hermione had nearly been placed in that house,) and he knew that there was probably more to Luna than met the eye.

He had also received gifts from many people in the order, generally people he knew quite well like Remus, Tonks, and Kingsley, but also he had received some from people he didn't know all that well like Dedalus Diggle and Emmeline Vance. Most of the order members had bought him some kind of book to do with Defence Against the dark Arts, and although reading was not really his thing, he found these books fascinating, and full of useful spells. They would have been very useful for him last year with the DA meetings, but he wasn't sure they would be carrying the club on. He decided to bring it up with all of them when he got back to Hogwarts; he supposed it depended on how good the next DADA teacher was.

All in all, Harry actually had a pretty good day; Mrs. Weasley gave them the day of from cleaning; she had always had a soft spot for Harry. That night they were going to have a small party instead of their normal dinner, like they had done last year to celebrate when Ron and Hermione had been made prefects.

It was that night at dinner, while Harry, Ron and Hermione were talking to Remus and Tonks, that the cheerful mood he was in was ruined somewhat dramatically by the arrival of an owl carrying a small pile of letters marked with the Hogwarts crest. Ron and Harry groaned simultaneously, 'it's just typical', thought Harry, 'that they would arrive on my birthday'. Hermione however squealed in a mixture of panic and delight; Harry rolled his eyes; only Hermione could get excited by exam results. She ran over to the owl, and relieved it of it's mail.

"It's brought our Hogwarts letters, too. Ginny, yours is here. It's a lot earlier than last year for our school letters. But the OWL results are a bit late actually, I thought they'd have come before now. Well, I guess they're here now, oh I hope I didn't fail Ancient Runes, I'll be so annoyed with myself if I did, I knew the answer to that question!" Ron and Harry were trying their best to ignore her, knowing that Hermione would have got the top results of their year. She handed them their letters, and sat back down next to them. Worried as he was about his results, Harry could not help but be amused by his friends' expressions; Hermione had an overeager look on hers, and she was trembling with a mixture of excitement and nervousness; while Ron looked at his as horrified as if he thought he would find his own death warrant inside.

"Well, go on then," Mrs Weasley said to her son, "open them." Ron looked at her in fear, and Harry felt a little sorry for him; if he had done badly he would have his mother to answer to. Hermione was now already ripping the envelope open, and quickly scanned the page, and she again squealed with delight, apparently she had done well. Big surprise there. "I don't believe it, I passed everything! I've got the grades for the subjects I want next year!" Remus grinned at her, and there was a chorus of congratulations from everyone in the room. Soon, though, everyone's attention turned to Harry and Ron who had still not moved to open their envelopes. Looking at each other, they silently agreed it was best to get it over with, and together they opened their results.

Harry opened his, and scanned the writing quickly;

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_Below are your results from the Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations you sat last year. The grading system is as follows;_

_O- Outstanding_

_E- Exceeds Expectations_

_A- Acceptable_

_P- Poor_

_D- Dreadful_

_A and above is a passing grade, and counts for one OWL._

_The grade shown next to the subject is the combined result from the practical and the theory exam._

_Transfiguration O_

_Potions O_

_Defence Against the Dark Arts O_

_Charms E_

_Herbology E_

_Astronomy E_

_History of Magic A_

_Care of Magical Creatures O_

_Divination A_

_Congratulations on achieving 9 OWLs. You will be required to send a letter to your Head of House informing them which subjects you wish to continue with next year. Please do not mark down a subject you have not received the required grade in, unless the subject teacher has given you permission to do so._

_Yours Faithfully_

_Griselda Marchbanks_

_Wizarding Examinations Authority_

Overall Harry was extremely relieved, though disbelieving; how could he have passed everything? He had been so sure he had failed at least Divination, Astronomy and History of Magic. He supposed the theory exams had made up for his terrible practical exams in Divination and Astronomy, but he couldn't believe he had got an outstanding in Potions, even without Snape there, and how had he passed History of Magic? That was the exam he had been in when he had received the vision of Sirius… 'Stop it' he told himself firmly, 'don't go there now.' He decided just to accept it and be happy with his results, especially when he realized he had achieved the required grades; he could take the classes he needed to become an Auror!

Ron, too, had looked relieved, and grinned at Harry, who returned it. His mother had taken the letter of him to look for herself, and she let out a scream, and pulled Ron into what looked like one of her rib cracking hugs. "Oh, Ron, 8 OWLs, I'm so proud of you!"

"Ron, that's great," Hermione said, and Harry smirked at him. "8? What did you fail in?" He took the same amount of subjects as Harry did.

Ron grinned back at him, "guess." Harry pretended to be thinking really hard,

"Erm… Divination, possibly?"

They laughed, "yep, big surprise there. How'd you do?" Harry handed him the letter, and Remus, Hermione and Mrs. Weasley read it over his shoulder. Mrs. Weasley let out another scream, and it was Harry's turned to be pulled into a hug, and Hermione looked delighted. Remus grinned at him, "Pretty impressive, Harry. Your parents would be very proud." Harry beamed at him in return, and then looked at Ron, and burst out laughing at his expression.

"You passed Divination! And you got an O in potions!"

"Yeah, it was a lot easier without Snape there. Unfortunately though I need Potions, and now I don't have an excuse not to take it. I have to put up with Snape for two more years. I don't know how I passed Divination though; hey, maybe Marshbanks really did meet a dark soggy stranger!"

Ron laughed, while everyone else just looked really confused.

"Well, anyway, now we have another reason to celebrate! You all did so well."

The party started up again, everyone now even happier than they had been before, even Harry; he was so relieved not to have to worry about the results anymore. He sat down with Ron and Hermione, and they took a closer look at each others results. Harry did not fail to notice that they had both got an O in defence, and because of how terrible a teacher they had last year, he realised with pride that it probably had a lot to do with him and the DA. He wondered how the others in the DA had done. They had all gotten pretty good last year, even Neville, who tended to struggle a lot in most lessons, with the exception of herbology. He amused himself by imagining Malfoy's face when he found out that Neville Longbottom had beaten him in the DADA OWL exam.

The rest of the holidays past too quickly for Harry's liking. Despite where he was, he found that he was actually enjoying them, especially compared to what they were normally like. Ron and Hermione had not mentioned Sirius again, but Harry had talked to Remus a bit more about him. About a week after his birthday, the two of them had gone through Sirius's room, while the others were cleaning. It had been hard, but it had definitely helped him, and Remus told him many amusing stories of the Marauders and the kinds of things they had done while they were at school.

Before Harry knew it, it was the last day of the holidays, and he and Ron were in their room in the afternoon, trying to get all their stuff together, which had once again ended up spread out in the room. Remus had got him some more dreamless sleep Potion for the first weeks of term, and had given him a letter to give to Madam Pomfrey, in case he needed to get some more later on. He was careful to hide this from Ron, of course, as he still had not mentioned anything to him about any of his dreams.

Harry was, however, still looking forward to his next school year. He reasoned that it couldn't really be any worse than the year before; at least there would be no Umbridge, the Ministry must have given up trying to interfere with the school now. Also, he hoped, that all the old decrees would be gone, which meant he would be able to play Quidditch, and visit Hogsmeade. He was dreading seeing the headmaster though. Last year his opinion of Dumbledore had changed completely; he still respected his power, but now realised he definitely had his flaws even though not many people noticed, and he also did not trust him as much. He had been reluctant to go to him for help with anything last year, and he didn't know if he could start now. He was dreading seeing him, and he knew that they would have to talk about the prophecy; which was the thing he had spent the last couple of months trying his best not to think about.

After a late dinner, Mrs. Weasley sent them to bed early, after checking that they had all finished packing; claiming that she wanted them up early so that they could be on time for the train for once.

It was still quite early, but it had been a long day, so both Ron and Harry fell asleep almost instantly. For tonight Harry had decided not to take his potion, thinking that as he was quite relaxed he would not get the dreams. They had barely troubled him since before his birthday, and had been less vivid. He was even starting to hope that they had just been normal dreams; despite his instincts that they meant something.

He did not realise just how wrong he was; for he was soon to regret his decision to not take the potion.

_Harry opened his eyes, and took in his surroundings; he was in the forest, once again surrounded by a suffocating darkness. For the first time since the dreams had started, this time he realised that he was asleep; but despite his efforts he could not wake up. He felt like screaming in frustration; he knew he was dreaming, and wanted to get out of here before anything bad happened. He soon gave up in his attempts; he would just have to wait until he was woken up by Ron in the morning. _

_Tonight was different than the others; tonight he felt braver. He knew he was just dreaming; he knew they couldn't harm him. But they were not following him any more. Had he out run them? He hadn't thought it was possible, but here he was in their woods, and they were not pursuing him anymore. He began to move cautiously forward; he was looking for the way out; through the clearing in the woods, that he had seen a few nights ago. Maybe if he got out and saw where this forest was, he could find out what these dreams meant._

_Even as he thought this he felt a disturbing prickle of doubt. Was this just a dream? He thought so, how else could he have got here? But it all seemed so real. He could feel the cold biting at him; hear the dry leaves crunch beneath his feet. If this was just a dream, why did everything seem so real? He continued walking through the darkness, making his way through the trees, all his senses on alert, listening for the sound of them, in case they found him again. But he heard nothing. He was alone._

_But was he alone? He could still here nothing, but he thought he sensed someone ahead of him, close by. He brushed a particularly large branch out of his way, and emerged into a clearing. The full moon above him offered only a small amount of light, but he could make out the form of what looked to be a man. Bravely Harry walked towards him, and as he came closer he saw the man was leaning over a cauldron, stirring it. Though the man did not look up, Harry somehow knew that he knew he was there. This meant he could not sneak away; besides, maybe this person could give him some answers. He moved even closer to the man, who finally looked up and made eye contact. Harry wanted to yell out, but found that he was unable to do so. It was the same man as before, the one with the golden eyes unlike any Harry had ever seen. As the man stared at him coldly, he again felt the evil practically rolling off him in waves. He needed to run, to get away; but found that he was frozen to the spot in fear, trapped by the man's almost unnatural looking eyes._

_He did not have his wand with him; he felt powerless against this man, who Harry could tell was more powerful than anyone he had ever met before, except maybe Dumbledore. But Dumbledore would not come; would not be able to save him this time like he had done last June. The potion, or whatever was in the cauldron, was now shooting up red sparks; Harry did not want to know what that potion was for, if it was being made by this person. But the potion was not finished; it needed one final ingredient. Some how, Harry knew what this ingredient was, but he was powerless to stop it as the golden-eyed man came towards him, pulling a knife out of his robes. Ignoring Harry, the man cut Harry on his arm, and even worse than the pain he felt from this was the feeling of being touched by someone so evil. _

_Just like Wormtail had done more than a year ago, he collected some of his blood from the cut and added it to the potion. Harry could not move; it was though someone had cast a binding spell on him, and all he could do was close his eyes, as the potion turned a blinding white. When he opened them, however, he once again found himself alone in the clearing; the man was gone. His relief at this was short-lived, as suddenly, he felt **them** again; they had found him; he could not stand here any longer, he had to move; had to run again. He didn't even care as he felt the trees scratching him as he hurtled past them; all that mattered was that he escaped._

That was when he jolted awake. He once again looked around the familiar room, frantically searching for the golden-eyed man, until he realised that he was alone except for Ron, who still slept in the bed next to his.

This dream had been worse than any of the others, mainly because it had felt so much more real. That was when he realised he felt a sharp pain in his arm; _No, it couldn't be…_

Harry turned on the lamp on his bedside table, knowing it wouldn't wake Ron who could sleep through anything short of an earthquake. He was horrified to see a new, deep cut, still with blood leaking out of it. He felt numb with disbelief. He could have just scratched himself in his sleep, he thought, before almost laughing at himself. This was no scratch; it was a deep cut made by a knife. That was when he noticed his arms were covered in lots of little thin scratches, as though…

As though he had run through a dense forest, being scratched by trees as he ran past as fast as he possibly could. This was incredibly serious; he had never sleepwalked before, and there was no way that he could have left Grimmauld place without anyone seeing him, was there? Something was going on; he had been right, these were not normal dreams. He had to tell someone, he had to ask for help; right now.

He looked at the clock; they had gone to bed early, so it was only 12:30 now, which meant someone was probably still awake downstairs, and he could tell someone from the order straight away.

He left the room quietly, after putting on his dressing gown, and made his way downstairs and through the door that led down to the kitchen. He was about to enter the room, when he heard voices coming from inside, and he froze, his hand on the door at the sound of his own name.

"…and Harry knows?"

"About the first one, yes. I think Dumbledore told him at the end of last year. The night Sirius died."

These two voices were Tonks and Lupin respectively, but they were not alone in the room, he heard another voice speak as well, as he felt a stab of fear; the night Sirius died, Dumbledore had told him about the prophecy. That had to be what they were talking about. He knew that the order had to know there was a prophecy, but did they know what it contained? Harry had assumed Dumbledore had kept that information to himself, but now he felt sick. Had they all known, all along? Had Sirius known?

"I can't imagine that. He's just sixteen, how must it feel to know that he's the only one who can defeat him?" This time the voice belonged to Mr. Weasley, and now Harry felt worse. He heard what sounded like Mrs. Weasley crying quietly; which meant that at least Ron's parents, Lupin and Tonks knew about the prophecy. How long had they known? Who else knew?

Harry leaned closer to the door, as he heard Tonk's reply, "Do you think Dumbledore will tell him about this one?"

_What? Had there been another prophecy made, about him? _

"I don't think so. Not yet, at least," came Lupin's grim reply, and Harry felt anger surge through him. If there had been another one, they were not going to tell him what it contained. Even after Dumbledore had admitted this had been a mistake with the first one.

Mr. Weasley sighed, "He's not a child anymore, though. I'm not sure keeping it a secret is the best idea. He'll have to find out eventually after all. But then again, I can partly understand. We don't really know anything about them yet. How can we be sure what he'll be facing?"

Now Harry was lost, and he felt confusion mixing with his anger. What were they talking about?

"Dumbledore's trying to find out more, but it's like nothing we've ever encountered before. I hope we're wrong, because he had too many allies as it was last time, but now if Voldemort has something this powerful as an ally, we're all going to be in a lot of trouble."

So had the prophecy been about this new possible ally of Voldemorts? Why were they so dangerous? Could this be linked to Harry's dreams in any way?

"Is there a chance they won't join him?" this was asked by Tonks, and there was a slight pause before Lupin answered her.

"We're not sure; we don't really know what they want yet. They could potentially have more power than Voldemort, if he helps them, so of course he might not risk it, in case they turn on him later on. We don't know a lot. The prophecy, of course as you know, told us a bit about them, but it was very vague. The only thing that was certain in it was that it was referring to the same one who could vanquish the dark lord. Harry."

For the first time, Harry heard Mrs. Weasley speak up. "I think Dumbledore's right. Harry shouldn't know yet, at least not until we know more about what we're facing. He's got enough to deal with as it is.

We should go up now, actually, we need an early start in the morning."

He heard them clearing up, and despite his shock, quickly made his way back up the stairs, not wanting them to know he had heard anything. They obviously weren't going to tell him anything. As he entered his room again, he felt angrier than he had in weeks. Not only had Dumbledore told them the first prophecy, he was still keeping big secrets from him; things he had a right to know. He also felt a lot of fear; this new ally sounded terrible, and it looked like he was going to be involved with them a lot too, if there had been prophecy about him and them. It was the last thing he needed; someone else targeting him. The dreams suddenly seemed so much worse; maybe the 'them' in his dream were the people this prophecy was about. Did that mean the dreams were going to come true? If he had learned one thing over the last few years, it was that there was no such thing as a coincidence.

That was when he remembered why he had gone down there in the first place; to tell them about the dreams. But he couldn't share them with them all now, he was so furious with them all.

He knew he was being stupid by not telling them, but he couldn't share himself with them now he knew they were all lying to him about something like this. Who were they to run his life for him? They had no right. Besides, the dreams weren't telling him anything about 'them' anyway, and if he mentioned his dreams, the order would just lie, and tell him they were nothing to worry about.

He lay there, unable to fall asleep. Was he in physical danger when he had the dreams? Just how powerful were these people, or whatever they were? He had to start taking the dreamless sleep potion more often. He would have to find a way to get some more; Remus had said that they wouldn't give him a lot. He realised that he wouldn't be able to keep this a secret from Dumbledore for too long, he would have to get help soon.

But for now he would keep the headmaster in the dark; just like he had done to Harry for so long.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**A/N thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed! I welcome all comments good or bad, and if anyone else has any ideas for this story please tell me in a review! I have a good idea of the plot but it's not set in stone, I'm probably going to change some things anyway, so all suggestions are welcome! In this chapter I attempted to write a sorting hat song, (emphasis on 'attempted') but I am so bad at that kind of thing, so it really is awful! I just wanted to apologise in advance for it, and I know the rhyming is terrible. But I figured a horrible song was better than none at all right? Anyway, here's chapter 7.**

It was the morning they were due to return back to school, and despite all of her children's complaints, Mrs. Weasley had them all up at 7:00 to make sure they were on time. Harry wasn't complaining, however, he was so furious with Remus and Ron's parents about keeping the new prophecy from him; he didn't know what it contained, but it was obviously to do with him, and so he was glad he wouldn't have to hide his feelings from them for much longer.

His secret of the dreams though, he knew, was too important to keep from the order of the Phoenix; he didn't want a repeat of last year. Though he had left it too late to tell them, he knew he should tell Dumbledore about them the first chance he got; maybe when he did that the Headmaster would decide to tell Harry the new prophecy. Fortunately for Harry, all the Weasleys and Hermione knew he was not really a morning person, and because he had been forced to get up early, his bad mood went unquestioned.

Last year they had walked to the station to catch the Hogwarts Express, it had only taken them 20 minutes, but luckily this year Mr. Weasley had been able to borrow cars from the Ministry so the journey only took them a few minutes. Remus, Moody and Tonks had come to escort them, and Ron's parents, Bill and the twins had come to see them off at Kings Cross. For the first time, this year they actually managed to make it with plenty of time to spare. Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione managed to find an empty compartment quite easily, and left their things there, before going to say goodbye to the others.

"You all be careful now," Mrs Weasley was saying as she gave them all a hug, "make sure to write, and stay out of trouble. You're all welcome to come and stay at Christmas of course."

After all promising that they would, they said goodbye to the others, and by the time they had got back onto the train, they had all disappareted.

"Come on, Ron, we need to go to the Prefects carriage." He groaned in response.

"I forgot about that. Why do we need to go, it's pointless." Harry and Ginny could hear them bickering as they made their way towards the Prefect carriage at the front of the train.

"Come on then," they made their way to their own carriage, and came across Neville, who was trying to find somewhere empty.

"It's alright Neville, you can come in ours," Ginny said to him.

"Thanks, you guys I couldn't find anywhere-" he broke off as they walked into Harry and Ginny's compartment which was no longer empty. Luna Lovegood was sitting there reading her father's magazine the squibbler. Neville had always found Luna 'Loony' Lovegood a little strange.

"Oh, hello," she greeted them.

"Hi Luna," said Harry, Luna didn't bother him that much anymore, or at least not as much as she did Neville.

"Did you have a nice summer, Luna?"

"Oh yes, it was quite enjoyable. We went on that expedition to Sweden I told you about. I didn't find a crumple-horned snorkack though." She looked mildly disappointed, and then went back to reading the magazine upside down, now apparently unaware that they were still in the room." Ginny met Harry's eyes and grinned, trying her best not to laugh.

"Hey, guys, look at this." Neville pulled out his wand from his robes, "My gran bought me a new one over the summer. Dragon heartstring, Beech 10 inches," he said proudly. Neville's wand, which had belonged to his father, had been broken when they were in the Department of Mysteries.

Over an hour later, in which time the witch with the lunch trolley had gone past, and Dean and Seamus had come to see them, Ron and Hermione came back.

"I still can't understand how those two idiots became prefects, it's just ridiculous!"

"Yeah, but at least this year there'll be no 'Inquisitorial Squad.' That was even more stupid."

"Malfoy's just as cocky as ever, of course," Hermione informed the others.

"Well let's see his face after we've played him at quidditch!" This was spoken triumphantly by Ginny.

"If we find some better beaters, that is," Harry reminded her.

"Oh, come on Harry! If we could beat them last year with Kirke and Sloper, without you, I think we could do it this year when you're actually are playing!"

"You're going to have a lot of new players this year then, aren't you?" Said Hermione, "that'll make a big change to the team won't it."

"I guess. I suppose Katie's captain this year, is she?"

"She must be. Her and Harry have been on the team the longest, and she's a seventh year, so it must be her."

"Hey, Harry, when she's left next year, Mcgonagall'll probably make you captain," said Ron excitedly. Strangely enough, Harry hadn't even thought amount that, but now he realised Ron was right. Once Katie had left he would be the player who had been on the team for the longest.

About an hour after Dean and Seamus left their compartment to go back to their own, they got another, less welcome guest.

"Hey look, its Potty and the Weasel King." Came Draco Malfoy's drawling voice.

"Oh, so witty, Malfoy'. What do you want?" This was Hermione, as Harry gripped his wand inside his pocket. If Malfoy was stupid enough to attack him, he was ready. He apparently hadn't learned his lesson since the end of last term; Malfoy had tried attacking him, and had ended up unconscious for the rest of the train journey.

"Not very friendly are we. I just came to see if Potty had survived the summer. Unfortunately, it looks like he has. But don't worry; I'm sure that'll change soon enough."

"Shove off, Malfoy." Ron too, it appeared was ready to attack if Malfoy gave them enough cause to.

"What's the matter Malfoy? Father not out of prison yet?"

"My Father won't be in Azkaban for long Potter. And when he gets out, you're going to pay." Malfoy snarled this at them, before turning and storming out of the compartment. Ron slammed the door shut after him, "Git."

"I would have thought they would have all escaped now actually, you know, with the dementers working for you-know-who."

"Well, I heard they've got Ministry members guarding it now as well. They're not as good as dementers for prison guards though, obviously, so they will most likely escape anyway eventually." Hermione sighed, "I wish the order could tell us more, they still think we're too young, even after what we went through last year…" she broke off, with a nervous look at Harry. He ignored this, and replied normally, "I know, it's annoying. I talked to Lupin a bit though the other day. All he told me was that Voldemort's still lying low, and they're not really sure why."

"Yes, that is a bit strange," she replied thoughtfully, "Now everyone knows about him, I thought he would stop being as secretive. I've tried asking the order about it, but they don't really give me a decent answer."

"I know I've tried to. I guess we don't have the right to know, even after what we went through last year," Ron said bitterly. Again this was followed by a nervous look at Harry, this time by Ron. Harry pointedly ignored this; while wondering how long his friends would wait before they dared try talk to him about Sirius again.

Before he knew it the train was pulling to a stop in Hogmeade station, and they started getting all their luggage together. Holding Hedwig's cage in his arm, Harry climbed of the train with the others, and to his relief, the first thing he heard was a familiar voice calling, "Firs' -years ovr 'ere…firs-years…" Hagrid saw them and waved, but due to the large crowds they could not go and speak to him. Hermione, holding onto a squirming Crookshanks, led Harry Ron and Ginny over to an empty carriage, and Neville and Luna followed them inside it.. Up until last year, Harry had thought these were horseless, but they were really pulled by Thestrals; creatures which you could only see if you had seen death. It had been a huge shock last year for Harry to see these reptilian horses pulling the carriages, and had been even more unnerved when no one else appeared to be able to see them, except 'Loony' Lovegood. Harry, Neville and Luna could all see them, but the other 3 couldn't. Though they had all been at the Ministry at the end of last year, only Harry and Neville had seen Sirius die.

The carriages finally arrived outside the front steps, and they all climbed out, leaving their luggage in the carriage as it was taken up to the dormitories separately. They started making their way up the steps, and entered the brightly-lit entrance hall, where they were unfortunately greeted by Peeves, the resident poltergeist, who had decided it would be amusing to drop water bombs on the student's heads as they came through the main doors.

The six of them ran past, and into the great hall, where they noticed there were a lot of wet students with disgruntled looks on their faces; obviously victims of Peeves.

Luna left them here to go to the Ravenclaw table, and Ginny joined some fellow fifth years, while the other four took seats next to Nearly-Headless Nick. "Good evening. I trust you all had a good summer?"

Harry had last seen Nick on the night of the leaving feast last year. He had decided not to attend the feast, and had ended up running into him. He had thought that maybe Sirius would be coming back as a ghost, and for a few minutes he had thought he would get to see his godfather again. When he had asked Nick about this, the ghost had told him that Sirius would not be coming back, and had basically just confused Harry even more, by trying to explain what happened to someone when they died. He had said that you get a choice to either become a ghost, or to 'go on.' But he could not explain what 'to go on' meant; he had insisted that he didn't know anything of the secrets of death, because he had simply chosen 'a feeble imitation of life.' Harry had not understood this, but now he felt he got it a little bit more, and he knew Sirius would not come back. At the time it had felt like he had lost his Godfather all over again.

Harry was saved replying by Dean, who would just sunk into the seat next to Ron. "What do you make of the new teacher then? Do you think he'll be any good?" For the first time since Harry had entered, he looked up at the staff table, and scanned each of the faces. There were two empty seats, one was for Hagrid, who escorted the first years across the lake, and the other for Professor McGonagall, who met the first years in the entrance hall. The only new face at the table was sat at the third seat from the end, talking to Professor Vector who taught Arithmancy. It would of course have to be the DADA teacher. Harry hoped he was better than the others; he had only liked one of their DADA teachers, the others had all either tried to kill him; torture him; or erase his memory, she Harry thought it was reasonable of him to be a little worried. From what he could tell, the man appeared to be in his late thirties and he had short, thick black hair. For some reason he looked familiar to Harry, even though he was sitting quite far away, and for reasons which he couldn't explain to himself, he disliked the man as soon as he laid eyes on him. He was annoyed with himself when he thought that though, he did not like to judge people before he met them. Besides, laughing at something Vector had said to him, he seemed to be friendly enough. But Harry could not shake off an uneasy feeling as he examined the new professor.

"I guess we'll find out soon enough," Ron was saying, "I hopes he's better than Umbridge; but then I'm not sure it's possible to be worse."

Any further comments were cut short, when the door opened and McGonagall led the long line of first years up to the front of the hall in front of the staff table. The hall fell quiet immediately as she glared around at everyone; she was the kind of teacher who could keep students under control without even trying to. Everyone's then looked to the hat which was sitting on the 3 legged stool, and the first years, seeing everyone's attention on it, stared at it too.

Suddenly, the rip near the brim of the hat, opened like a mouth, and the hat burst into song:

"_I'll tell the story, of long ago_

_When a great wizard,_

_Whose name you should know;_

_Decided that, with his friends_

_He could make his wish come true._

_Together they could teach young sorcerers,_

_And for a while this plan worked better than he knew._

_But soon, from within the school came discord_

_That fed on their fear,_

_And their differences did grow,_

_Until one day it became clear_

_That Slytherin would leave them._

_Now, I was there, and I can say_

_That division made the friendships fail_

_But, even now, to this day_

_Despite the warnings I gave you_

_The same mistakes you are making_

_And soon it will be too late,_

_For the unity we need, you are all forsaking._

_Unless you start to work together_

_I fear the fall of the school is near,_

_So now, this time, you most listen closely_

_It's important that you hear;_

_You must all act quickly,_

_Now time is running short_

_You must all unite together,_

_If this war to be fought;_

_For we are all in danger._

_And though I must split this year, like the ones before_

_I hope now you all see truth,_

_Whether you be a clever Ravenclaw or Brave Gryffindor_

_Pureblood Slytherin, or kind hufflepuff,_

_It is the same for all._

_I have told you now all you need to hear_

_So join the house whose name I call,_

_But bear in mind the warning that I gave you."_

**(A/N see! I told you it was terrible. Basically the hat is just giving the same warning as last year, so please just remember that, and ignore the song!)**

Just like the year before, whispers broke out al across the hall; but this year, of course at least everyone believed that Voldemort had returned, so it wasn't as much as a surprise.

The whispers were stopped by McGonagall, who once again glared around the hall, shutting people up immediately.

"First years, when I call your name, come forward sit on the stool and place the hat on your head." She pulled out scroll, and began to read out the names.

"Aguir, Morgana."

GRYFFINDOR!

As the sorting went on, it gave Harry time to think about the sorting hat's warning; he supposed it made sense, because one of Voldemorts greatest weapons was spreading distrust and division. Harry knew this for a fact; Wormtail had been trusted by his parents; they had literally trusted him with their lives, and he had betrayed them. But he didn't see ever making friends with any Slytherins; Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, though, maybe. In fact, wasn't that what he had been doing last year? The DA had had members from Gryffindor Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff; they had been working together learning to defend themselves. Was it possible that some Slytherins would like to join it, if he carried it on? After all they couldn't all turn out to be Death eaters.

"Webster, Charity"

RAVENCLAW!

The sorting came to a close, and McGonagall took the hat and stool out of the Hall. Dumbledore waited until she had rejoined the staff table, before he stood up, beaming at them all, and silence fell immediately.

"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! I have a few notices to give out after our wonderful feast, but first I would like you all to welcome your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." The dark-haired man Harry had noticed earlier stood up, and smiled at everyone in the hall. "This is Professor Calhoun Drualtys."

There was a scattering of applause, slightly more enthusiastic than normal; possibly because all the students and staff, (except Filch) had been so glad to get rid of the last DADA teacher, and they knew this one would be better. Harry however, was beginning to think this might not be true; the man was smiling at everyone, and still appeared to be quite friendly, and Harry looked at him he again felt an inexplicable hatred and distrust of him. Where were those feelings coming from?

"And now, let the feast begin!" Everyone cheered; they hadn't eaten anything since the food trolley came on the train. Harry hadn't realised how much he missed Hogwarts food, but now as he helped himself to the steal and kidney pie, he thought that the house elves had outdone themselves; it was just as good as Mrs. Weasleys cooking.

Katie, who was sat with some of her friends nearby, leaned in to talk to Harry and Ron.

"You two, did you have a nice summer?" She didn't wait for a reply; Harry was worried; he had always liked Katie but now he thought she was maybe going to turn out to be as bad as Wood and Angelina had been. "I've been made Quidditch captain."

"Cool, when are you holding tryouts?"

"That's what I want to talk to you about. Listen you saw how terrible those beaters were last year, I was hoping to replace them; unless of course no one better turns up. But I don't want to just throw them off the team. So I was thinking, I know Ginny was really good, and I don't want to make her tryout again for the chaser position, but what if we say to Kirke and Sloper that we're making all the replacements from last year tryout again, to give other people a chance? That way we're not exactly throwing them off, especially if we're making Ginny do the same."

"That's a good idea actually. We have to find some better players."

"Alright, great. I just need to tell Ginny the plan then. How about we hold tryouts Saturday afternoon? I want to do them soon so we can practice; we'll have lots of new members to train up. So I'll put a notice up in the common room, ok? Make sure you're free for 2:00 on Saturday, ok?"

Harry had missed the tryouts last year, because he had been in a detention with Umbridge; he'd have to make sure he didn't do anything to give Snape an excuse to give him a detention.

"We'll be there."

He spent most of dinner talking to Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville about who they thought would come to the tryouts; Dean said that he was thinking of coming, and was trying to persuade Seamus to do the same.

"I still think I'm better at football though, of course," (Ron shook his head at this, he could never understand Dean's obsession with football,) "But I stayed with Seamus for a bit in the summer, and we played a bit; I think I got pretty good. I'm gonna try out at one of the beaters!"

When all the deserts had been cleaned away; Dumbledore stood up once again. "Well now we have all finished yet another magnificent feast, I would like to give you the rest of the notices. First years should be warned that the forbidden forest is out of bound to all students… and some older students should be able to remember this too, by now." Harry, Ron and Hermione had been into the forbidden forest multiple times, and realised that this was most likely directed at them; they grinned at each other.

"Our caretaker, Mr Filch has also asked me to inform you that the list of forbidden objects has increased substantially since the end of last year. The new list can be viewed in his office, and I am sure that many of you will wish to check it." This longer list probably contained all the items that were sold by the Weasley twins; Harry grinned as he remembered the mayhem some of these object had allowed the students to cause last year when Umbridge had become headmistress.

"Now, I think it is bedtime, as I am sure you will all be very eager to enter your lessons on time in the morning!" The great hall started to clear, and Ron and Hermione started trying to round up the first years to show them the way to the dormitory. Hermione whispered the password to him that she had been told in the Prefect carriage, and he and the rest of the boys in his dorm, minus Ron, left together.

"Phoenix Tears," Harry said as they reached the portrait of the fat lady, who nodded to him and opened to reveal the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. They climbed the stairs to their dorm which now read, "Sixth years," to find that their luggage had been brought up for them. They had already unpacked a lot of their belongings, when Ron entered muttering to himself; something about "bloody first years."

Half an hour later, Harry was in bed with the curtains around his four poster bed drawn. After what had happened last night, he was definitely going to take some of the Dreamless Sleep potion Remus had given him. He knew he would have to talk to Dumbledore soon; maybe he could find a better way to stop him having the dreams; Remus said it wasn't a good idea to keep taking that potion every night. But for now, it would do; anything to stop him repeating last night's dream.

In the morning, Harry Ron and Hermione entered the great hall for breakfast to see McGonagall handing out timetables. As she past them she leaned in, and said so that only Harry, and Ron and Hermione who were sitting on either side of him could hear, "Potter, the headmaster would like to see you tonight in his office, straight after you've finished dinner. Don't be there later than 5:30."

She carried on up the table, before harry could ask her anything. "What do you think he wants with you?" Ron asked him. "Dunno," he lied.

"Maybe you have to carry on Occulemcy?"

Harry gratefully latched on to this excuse, "Yeah, that must be it." Now he thought about it, that might actually be a part of it; they wouldn't just be talking about the prophecy. If he had to take extra classes with Snape again…It was bad enough last year, but this year he already had more lessons than ever with Snape, as he now took NEWT potions. He had dropped a lot of his old subjects; he was only taking 5 now; Potions, Charms, DADA and transfiguration as he needed them to be an Auror, and also as he needed a fifth he had taken COMC, so he could still be in Hagrid's class.

He now looked down at his timetable and groaned. "What's the matter, Harry?"

"I've got double potions first thing today. I cant believe it."

"You chose the class Harry," Hermione reminded him, while Ron looked sympathetic, "besides, I'm in it too, I can help you."

"Thanks," he said half-heartedly. "What have you got Ron?" Ron had only got an E in the potions exam, and was now looking at alternate career paths. "Herbology. I think I'm with you for all the other subjects though. We won't find out what that Drualtys is like until tomorrow though." He was scanning the rest of the timetable. "Hey, look we have 4 free periods a week! None today though."

Hermione frowned at him, "they're not 'free' periods, Ronald, they're study periods." Being ignored, though, she turned to Harry. "Come on then, we better go, we do _not _want to be late for Snape's class."

"Alright then. See you , Ron."

As they walked out of the hall, Harry said gloomily to Hermione, "He's going to be worse than ever this year. He'll be furious that I got into his class."

Hermione, however, looked satisfied at this thought, "Yes, I bet he thought you wouldn't be good enough to get an O. Well, you showed him, he can't say you're really bad at Potions, now!" she beamed at him, but Harry was barely cheered by this way of looking at it. "I bet we're the only non-Slytherins in the class. No one else is stupid enough to take it." Especially without Ron, Harry was extremely glad that Hermione was in this class with him.

"Don't be silly, Harry. There'll be people from the other houses that'll need potions. I think we're the only Gryffindors there though."

When they reached the dungeons, they saw the class lined up outside; it was the smallest Harry had ever been in. Because of the grades Snape required them to get, plus the fact that he was the most hated teacher in the school, there was only 10 other people there, and that was from all four houses. There was 1 each from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw; Ernie MacMillan, and Anthony Goldstein, who were standing together looking nervous, and then intensely relieved as they saw the two Gryffindors approaching. "Thank god you two are here. I thought we'd be alone with this lot." Ernie said this quietly, motioning towards the other 8, who were all Slytherins.

Malfoy had been in conversation with a pale boy called Theodore Nott, probably because his usual cronies Crabbe and Goyle had obviously not made it into the class, but looked round as he saw Harry and Hermione.

"_Potter?_ How the hell did you get into this class," he was laughing incredulously, "didn't you take Remedial Potions last year?" he added loudly. The Slytherins laughed, and Harry felt his face burning, but only very slightly. He had not actually been taking Remedial Potions last year, but he couldn't tell them that; it had been Snape's cover for his Occulemcy lessons.

"Shove off, Malfoy. Who did your family have to pay to get you an O on the exam, then?" Came Hermione's scathing reply. Malfoy narrowed his eyes, and both he and Harry had been about to draw their wands, when Snape arrived, stopping the fight that would have inevitably followed. He swept into the dungeons, and they all followed him; Harry, Hermione, Ernie and Anthony taking seats together on the back row.

Snape started the class immediately, as expected, on the importance of the NEWTs they would be taking at the end of the seventh year. "I will not keep in my class anyone who is slowing the group down. You are all apparently the best in your year, or at least most of you are," his gaze lingered obviously on Harry for a moment, and some of the Slytherins sniggered, before continuing. "So anyone I feel is not working up to the standard I expect will be removed from the class immediately. I will be teaching you a wide range of difficult potions that are most commonly tested on in your NEWT exams, and we can not afford to waste any time this year. Most of the potions we will be making can only be found in the restricted section of the library, which means any mistakes made could prove extremely dangerous, and I will not tolerate any bad behaviour this year. You have been warned." He paused here slightly, and Harry go the impression he was speaking mainly to him. He would have to be very careful this year; he needed this NEWT, and Snape would love an excuse to throw him out of the class.

"The first potion we will be making is the Polyjuice Potion." Harry's head snapped up, surprised. This was a very difficult potion, but he Hermione and Ron had taken it illegally in their second year. Although Hermione had done most, well alright, all of the making, Harry had been there most of the time watching what she was doing, so had a decent idea of how to make it. Hermione, sat next to him, met his eyes and they grinned slightly at each other, hoping Snape hadn't noticed.

"Who can tell me the effects of the Polyjuice potion?" As usual, Hermione's hand went up, but she was the only one. Harry obviously knew the answer to this question, but he also knew Snape would pick on him if his hand didn't go up, and he wanted to get an answer right for once, so he kept his hand down.

"No one?" he said, ignoring Hermione, "You should all know, I mentioned this potion to you in your second year…Potter, how about you?"

He had been right. "It allows you to temporarily take on the appearance of someone else. The effects only last for one hour though." For a split second Snape looked surprised, but he recovered so quickly, Harry could have been imagining it.

"Yes." He looked disappointed that he had been unable to take away any points from Harry. "It is an extremely difficult potion, and will take several lessons to prepare. In a couple of weeks, we shall be testing them," he sneered, "any mistakes made could cause the potion to have adverse effects, and so you must follow my instructions carefully." He waved his wand, and a long list of instructions appeared on the board. "You may begin."

The rest of the double period passed without any major problems; as Neville was not there, there was no explosions, and by the end Harry's potion looked almost indistinguishable from Hermione's; always a good sign.

"Well, that could have gone worse, I suppose," Harry and Hermione had said goodbye to the other two, and were making their way to Transfiguration. They walked into the classroom, where most of the students were already assembled, and went over to Ron who had saved them both seats. "How was it?"

"Not too bad. For Snape, of course. We're doing the Polyjuice potion!"

"Yeah, well, still I'm glad I never have to be in one of his lessons again."

The rest of the lessons went by fairly quickly from Harry's point of view; they got more talks about the NEWTs from the other teachers, McGonagall, Flitwick, and even Hagrid, but they still seemed so far away to him. The thing he was mainly worried about was the type of creatures Hagrid would be showing them. They had spent their lesson today reviewing old things, but he was starting to think taking COMC might be a mistake; he just hoped Hagrid couldn't get his hands on another dragon.

After their last lesson, the three of them went into the Great hall, where Harry would be having a quick dinner, before going to see the headmaster.

"Wasn't too bad for the first day back. We haven't got nearly as much homework as last year." Ron was right; this time last year, they had already been given so much work. The twins had warned that fifth was the worst, and they didn't have any major exams in sixth year, so it looked like they would have more spare time, which Harry and Ron, at least, were very thankful for.

"Alright, you guys, I have to go. I'll see you later; I don't know how long this is going to be." He got up and left the table and the Great hall. Now he didn't have lessons to worry about, Harry was feeling very nervous about the conversation he would soon be having. As well as Occulemcy, they would also be talking about the prophecy, and Harry was going to have to admit that he had been keeping the dreams secret. What would Dumbledore tell him about them? Would he mention anything about the second prophecy Harry had heard the order talking about? If he didn't, what should he do, confront him about it, or not?

Lost in thought, it was only when he had reached the entrance to the office that he realised he did not know the password. How could he have been so stupid? Why hadn't he asked Professor McGonagall for it? Oh well, he had guessed it once before; (Dumbledore only ever seemed to chose sweets), so he could do it again.

"Alright, then. Erm…Sherbet lemon; Lemon drop? No. Ok, cockroach cluster?" That had been the password in his fourth year. Since he had guessed it that year, (as a joke, actually) he had been curious as to whether or not Dumbledore actually ate them.

"Bertie botts every flavour beans; pear drop; liquorice wand; er… fizzing whizbees. Oh come on, just open!" This was getting very frustrating. "Skiving Snack boxes, canary creams-"

To his relief, the old stone gargoyle sprung to life, and Harry was finally able to stand on the spiral staircase which moved him slowly upwards until he was outside Dumbledore's office.

He knocked, and after waiting a few seconds, pushed the door open. The first thing he saw was Fawkes, the phoenix, who greeted Harry briefly with a single note. Harry then noticed that there was much muttering from the portraits of old headmasters on the walls. He cringed slightly inside; the last time he had been in here, he had basically been trashing the office, and yelling at Dumbledore. He may have had extremely good cause to be angry with the headmaster, but still, he now felt a little bit guilty.

That was when the headmaster came into Harry's sight from further inside the office, "Harry. Thank you for coming, please sit down." He came and sat in the chair in front of Dumbledore's desk, doing his best to avoid eye contact with him; he had been dreading this conversation for more than 2 months.

"Harry, even though you proved last year, Voldemort would find it hard to possess you, however I believe that it is still important for you to practice Occulemcy." So Hermione had been right, that had been at least part of the reason why he had been sent here. He was relieved the Dumbledore had got straight down to business; maybe he had sensed Harry did not really want to talk to him, of all people, about Sirius. Then again he had the feeling that Remus and the others had been reporting to Dumbledore about him. He was also, though, slightly worried about where this conversation was going. It looked as though he might have to carry on taking extra lessons with Snape.

"I realise that I made a mistake last year in asking Professor Snape to teach you; as I told you last year, I had thought he would be able to get past his feelings for your father. Needless to say I was wrong. This year, then I would like to teach you myself. If, of course, you are alright with this arrangement."

Harry looked up, surprised. Dumbledore, teach him occulemcy? He was surprised that the Headmaster had the time to do this actually; he was heavily leaned on by both the order, and now the ministry. Despite his less than friendly feelings for Dumbledore at the moment, he knew that really it was an honour to be taught one-on-one by him, and that not many people got this opportunity. There was no one better in the world to teach him it, at least that he could think of.

"Yes." He said, speaking for the first time since he had entered the office, "that's fine, if you have the time I mean." He was speaking very politely, and also he noticed a bit coldly. He knew he maybe aught to be a little more grateful, but it was hard when he thought of the secrets Dumbledore was obviously still keeping from him. He was also a little disturbed at the idea that Dumbledore would be seeing quite a few of his own memories; personal memories. That's when he realised; the dreams. He couldn't put off telling the headmaster about them, he couldn't risk him finding out during one of their lessons.

Before Dumbledore could continue, Harry spoke again, hesitantly, "Professor, there's something I er… have to tell you." Dumbledore surveyed him calmly through his half moon spectacles; Harry had barely ever seen him lose his calm exposure; even last year when he had been yelling at him and trashing his office. It had been quite frustrating at the time.

"For the last few weeks, I've been having some…dreams. Or, nightmares, actually…" he broke off there, wondering how to continue.

"Remus informed me you may be needing some dreamless sleep potion. He said you'd been having some dreams about Sir-"

"I lied," Harry spoke bluntly, cutting him off. "They're not about what happened that night. Well I have had some, but they aren't the ones that were stopping me sleeping."

He looked up again, for he had been finding it easier just to stare at the desk. "I'm not seeing Voldemort anymore. I haven't had any dreams about him all summer; even though my scars bothered me quite a bit. These are… different." That was one word for them, anyway. He was finding it very hard to talk about them; he wasn't sure he could get across to Dumbledore just how terrifying they had been. But the Dumbledore was regarding him quietly, silently inviting him to continue.

"I know I should have told someone about them. I'm not sure why I didn't. But anyway, at first I thought they were just ordinary nightmares. But the last few times…" he struggled to find the words, "well, they got worse. I've been taking the potion most nights for a while now, and the nights I didn't I wasn't getting them as much; I had hoped that maybe they were stopping. But I had another on the night before I came back here. That one and the one before it; I could tell with them the most that the dreams were not normal."

"What makes you say this? Does your scar hurt right after you have them?"

"No. Like I said, I don't think there connected to Voldemort or our connection. I'm not really sure how I know; this may not sound convincing but I have a feeling, I just _know_ that they mean something."

"What happens in them?"

"The first few times, I don't think they lasted very long. I couldn't remember much about them even when I had just woken up. All I can remember it running away from someone, some_thing. _And I could remember being scared. More than scared…terrified, but I'm not sure exactly why. Then one night, I think it was the night after the ministry members came to Privet Drive, they suddenly became more vivid, I could remember more things, and I'm pretty sure they lasted longer. That time, I realised I recognised the place I was running in, but I was so terrified I couldn't even think straight. In the dream I knew that I there was a reason why I was there, but I couldn't remember, I just couldn't focus on anything. All I could think of to do was keep running, because I knew if they caught up to me, they'd kill me."

"Who's 'they' Harry?"

"That's the thing. I don't know. When I'm asleep I know who they are, sometimes at least, but when I wake up, it's just 'they.' I try so hard to remember, but I never can." His frustration showed in his voice, and he looked at Dumbledore for his reaction; but his face was neutral, so he went on.

"Like I said, the last two I had were the worst. They were both different to the others, though. One began the same, I was running, trying to escape them, but this time I was losing them, and I could even see the way out. It was in this dream that I realised I was in a forest. But as I got close to escaping it, there was this man, who suddenly appeared, blocking my way. I cant really remember anything useful about him; except that he was evil; pure evil. At the time though, I remember thinking that he wasn't one of _'them'_ but he was blocking my way, and they managed to catch up with me because of him. I woke up before I saw them though.

"Then the last one I had…it's the one I'm most worried about. I should have told someone right away. When it started I was alone, they weren't there. But I came across that man; and he was making some kind of potion, I don't know what it was for though. The worst part is, he did just what Wormtail did a year ago. He used some of my blood in it. I remember closing my eyes, and when I opened them he was gone, and 'they' were back. This dream felt the most real, and…"

This part he was even more reluctant to share. "When I woke up, I had a cut; made by a knife, in the same place it was in my dream."

For the first time, Dumbledore showed his surprise, and Harry could almost feel the concern rolling off him.

"You should have come to me, or the order right away." Harry didn't say anything; he knew he was right, but he had wanted to tell them, and had then heard them talking about this new prophecy Dumbledore was keeping secret. Dumbledore asked him to show him the cut on his arm. When he had examined it, and went back and sat down again behind his desks, lost in thought.

"Professor," Harry said tentatively, "do you know what they're about? Do you think they mean something?"

"Harry, you were right to come to me, I think they may be important. But I don't think it would be wise to allow these dreams to continue. I will have to get you some more potion until we can find another way to stop them."

"Good. But do you know anything about what they mean?" Harry wanted to know if he thought they were connected to this new potential ally of Voldemort's; he wanted to know if Dumbledore would tell him anything.

Dumbledore gave him one of his swift searching looks, did he know he knew something?

"I can not be sure, Harry. However I believe I may have some idea what they mean, but it's not a lot I'm afraid. I can't tell you much, mainly because we don't really know anything yet; but we believe Voldemort may have found a new…ally."

"Who? How do you know?"

"We're not sure, Harry, that's the problem we don't know who they are; only that they are extremely powerful I think they have something to do with the fact Voldemort has been lying low. Though they potentially have more power than him, they are weak at the moment and need his help to gain their strength. He seems to be putting a lot of his energy into helping them. We don't know the extent of their powers, but we do know we do not want them on his side."

"But he must want to keep them quiet. How do you know all this?" He wondered if Dumbledore was trying to avoid this question; as it would most likely involve mentioning the prophecy.

"That information is supposed to be kept secret in the order… however, these dreams mean that for some reason you are already involved with them. There was a prophecy made, Harry. Again, it was by Sibyl Trelawney, and I was the only one to hear it; Voldemort does not yet know of it's existence."

"What does it say?"

"I do not wish to give you the exact wording; everyone who knows it is in great danger. But it should be safe to tell you this much; its very hard to understand exactly what the prophecy means, it's very vague. It does however speak of the fact that this new ally may betray Voldemort once they are strong enough, but it does not say anything for definite." But was that true? He thought back to Lupin's words; _"The only thing that was certain in it was that it was referring to the same one who could vanquish the dark lord. Harry." _But it didn't look like Dumbledore was going to tell him this. Harry felt a small spark of doubt. Was it possible that he misunderstood what they had been saying? He didn't think so, it was pretty clear. But maybe Dumbledore did have a good reason for not telling him; after all he had admitted last year that not telling him the first prophecy was a mistake, would he really want to repeat this mistake? That too seemed unlikely, but what possible good reason was there?

"Professor, if Voldemort knows how strong they are, why is he risking helping them, surely he must know it's likely they would betray him; even without knowing the prophecy?"

"He of course must know that is a likely possibility. But if he manages to get this new force, whatever it is, on his side; it would almost definitely win him the war." Harry was shocked to hear these words from Dumbledore of all people; he was not normally one to be almost admitting defeat.

"They're that powerful?"

"We believe so. The thing is, Harry, we have more chance of beating Voldemort than we do them. We are hoping that Voldemort will not risk it; but they appear to be getting stronger, if your dreams are any sign. If we tell him the prophecy, of course, he may think we are trying to trick him into not joining with them, so that will have to be a last resort."

"What about the man in my dreams. I recognised when I was asleep that he wasn't one of them; but he seemed really evil. Who do you think he is? A follower of Voldemort?"

"It's possible, Harry. I really can't tell; your description of him is not much to go on."

Harry struggled to remember his face, what had he looked like? The eyes; they were all he could remember, but he didn't think that would be much help.

"I'm sorry; I can't remember any more of him. Except his eyes, that's all I can think of; they were really unusual, sort of a deep gold colour, I've never seen eyes like that before. But that isn't really much help, is it?"

Dumbledore remained silent, once again lost in thought. But Harry wasn't finished yet.

"Why is it me having these dreams professor; how could I have known about them before you told me. And how could I have gotten that cut, there's no way I could have left Grimmauld place, is there?"

Harry had never seen Dumbledore's face so grave. "I can't be certain," he answered quietly "we believe they are working closely to Voldemort; and you know of course of the connection you share with him."

That was his answer. He was not going to tell Harry about the fact that he was mentioned in the prophecy; he had just told him half of the story. Harry also noticed that when Dumbledore had answered him, he had not actually lied outright; simply told him a half truth. That, in Harry's opinion, in this case was just as bad as a lie, but he knew that the headmaster would not see it this way. He still wasn't going to find out how he was involved with this new ally; even though he was having the dreams. A part of him just wanted to trust Dumbledore's judgement; most people did, and he must have reasons for not telling him about it. But what if those reasons were that he had just found out the first one, and it wasn't fair to place another burden on him? If he was involved, as far as Harry was concerned, whatever it was, he had a right to know.

"Sir, on the last night of the holidays; after I had that dream I went downstairs; I was planning on telling someone about them. But I was outside the kitchen; I didn't want to eavesdrop, but I heard my name, and … I heard them talking about the prophecy," he confessed. "From what they were saying; well it sounded as though I was involved."

Dumbledore hid his surprise very well, but it was still clear to Harry that he had not expected this. "Harry, I don't know exactly what you heard. I confess that there is a possibility it is talking about you; but as I tried to tell the order, and as I told you, it was very vague and therefore very easy to be misread. We can not be certain it was talking about you, and as I mentioned anyone who knows the full content is in great danger; both from this new ally and from Voldemort. This is why only select order members were told it in its entirety."

Needless to say, Harry was not satisfied with this explanation, but there was a look in Dumbledore's eyes, one he had seen before; he had made up his mind and there would be no changing it now. If Harry was going to find out what the prophecy said, as usual he would have to do it on his own.

**_A/N Well, there's chapter 7! please review and tell me what you think. i didn't get many reviews for chapter 6, so if you want me to carry on with this story, you'll have to tell me, because if i don't get any more reviews i might not write any more. if no one's reading it, there's not a great deal of point! so any comments are welcome. the next chapter if i write it will have Quidditch tryouts, Harry first Occulemcy lesson with Dumbledore, and we will also meet the DADA teacher properly._**


End file.
